


Daydreamer's Nightmare

by DragonSilk



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Drama, Drugged and Kidnapped, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Marriage of Convenience, Minor Violence, Reader-Insert, Romance, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-13
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2017-11-25 10:14:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 90,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/637805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSilk/pseuds/DragonSilk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You really needed to start reading legal documents and contracts before you signed them.</p><p>If you had read the documents, you wouldn't have found yourself in this situation. You would have realized what he meant by signing your life away. You would have said, "No thanks," and walked away.</p><p>But you didn't read the legal documents, and you did sign those contracts, and now, you were screwed.</p><p>Seto Kaiba/Reader</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! I'm not making any profit off this story. 
> 
> **IMPORTANT!**  
>  In this story Seto Kaiba is older and more mature. This will be influencing my characterization of him. He's going to be a little calmer and less likely to fly off the handle and maybe a little less of a jerk. But don't worry, he'll still be the same, just more mature.
> 
> This is an older fic of mine. I started it back in 2007 or 2008. It's been posted a few different places over the years, and I want to bring it over here to see if anyone will enjoy it. :)

There was nothing quite as stressful as searching for a new job. Especially when it was unexpected. Until recently, you had been a successful graphic designer with a moderately successful company. Your boss had nothing but praises for your work, and you had felt like you could even move up in the company. 

Unfortunately, the small but successful company that you previously worked for had been bought by a larger company. Adjustments had been made, excess baggage had been tossed out, and you had been let go with little to no warning. 

All that work you had put into the company was for nothing. Now you were in Domino City with an apartment that required a monthly rent but no job to help you pay that rent. You’d thought about moving to a larger city, one that would have more opportunities for employment, but you knew that finding another apartment would be difficult. Sure, you might find a job in Tokyo, but then you might not actually have anywhere to live. 

At first, you spent a few days pouting and moping. It didn't help, and it wasted more time than you could afford, but the loss of your job had come as a complete shock so it was hard to actually do more than watch horrible TV and eat ice cream.

You couldn't mope around any longer. Time was money, and you didn't have money to waste. So you told yourself that today was going to be dedicated to applying for a bunch of jobs.

The first step was finding jobs to apply for. Which was how you found yourself sitting at your table with your laptop, browsing a job search engine as you ate your breakfast. There was a plate of food off to the side of your computer, but you mostly ignored it as you saved the jobs that looked interesting. One of your hands stayed wrapped around a mug of coffee, and you absentmindedly sipped the delicious brew as you looked over each job.

You even saved the jobs that you could do if needed but didn't actually want. You needed a job. Any job would do for now.

Fortunately, there was a massive company in Domino: Kaiba Corporation. You didn't see any applicable openings for Kaiba Corp. online, but you weren't going to let that faze you. Large companies were always hiring new people.

It was better to apply for jobs in person, so you decided that a visit to Kaiba Corp. was in order. You finished the last of your coffee, shut down your computer, and grabbed your bag. It was time to take a walk through downtown Domino.

Kaiba Corp. wasn't your first stop just because you thought they would have an opening; you also wanted a job at Kaiba Corporation. You’d heard that the employees were paid well. Of course you’d also heard that employees were only paid well because their boss was a complete tyrant who couldn’t keep employees otherwise, but you didn’t really care. You’d had horrible bosses before. It was easy enough to deal with them when you knew how they worked. Surely Seto Kaiba would be no different. 

It helped that working in a large company like Kaiba Corporation would make you feel more secure in your job. They wouldn't be downsizing any of their departments like your old company. There was a certain amount of job security in working for an established and well-known company. 

There was just one problem. Would you be able to get a job at Kaiba Corp? They only hired the best of the best. You were good at what you did, you had an amazing portfolio, and you had experience in the field, but would that be enough?

As you stared at the entrance of Kaiba Corporation, you told yourself that you couldn't lose anything by taking a shot and applying. Trying to get a job at Kaiba Corp. wasn't a risk. The worst that could happen was that they would tell you no. 

You reminded yourself that you were talented and passionate about your job. They would be lucky to have you. 

With a deep breath, you entered the lobby of the building and found yourself faced with an alarmingly busy location. The elevators seemed to be blocked by a mob of people, and there were security guards everywhere. One of the security guards was already walking toward you. 

“Did you need something, miss?” He sounded ready to kick you out of the building if you said no. Hostility was apparently okay here.

“I wanted to pick up an application?” 

The man gave you a disdainful look that you didn't understand. “Follow me.” He turned away and began walking. He led you to the long desk that was only a few feet away from where you had been standing and straight up to one of the women behind the counter. 

“We've got another one,” he informed the woman before walking away.

The secretary, at least, that was what you assumed she was, glared at you. She openly eyed you from head to toe, and she didn't seem impressed by what she saw. 

You wondered why nobody had ever mentioned the hostile work environment before. Sure there were stories about the CEO being a giant jerk, but you were still on the ground floor and people were already acting rude.

The woman pulled a packet of papers from under the counter and dropped them down in front of you.

“To apply for the… _job_ , you need to take an IQ test. We'll offer them here at Kaiba Corp. every Saturday morning until the position is filled. Fill this out and turn it in when you take the IQ test. Have a nice day.”

Her abrasive tone and the way she had said the word ‘job’ confused you, so you took the paperwork that was sitting on the counter and left without asking her any questions. You had a lot of questions too, but now didn't seem like the time to ask them, and you were sure that you would get an opportunity to ask them at a later date, possibly at the IQ test.

You picked up some applications from a few more companies, just in case, but you planned on getting that job at Kaiba Corporation. The IQ test would be no problem, you had experience with IQ tests, and you knew that your IQ was well above average. You just weren’t sure what you would have to do after the IQ test. Would the IQ test clear you for an interview or would it secure you the job if you did well enough? They were questions that you hadn't asked, and you almost regretted that choice. You weren’t sure what to expect, and you couldn't afford to take a chance and only apply for the job at Kaiba Corp. The other companies in Domino were smaller, but you would have to visit them and see if they had any openings.

Once you were back in your apartment, you put all the applications in a pile on your kitchen table. As you considered what you should prepare for dinner, you tried not to think about filling out the applications. The Kaiba Corp. application was incredibly thick, and even though it felt like the longest application, there were a few others that seemed to be pretty lengthy. Filling them out would take some time, and you needed to eat something first.

Since you were going to need time for the applications, you didn’t want to waste any energy on cooking. There were some leftovers in the refrigerator that would make an acceptable meal, so you popped them into the microwave. Then, while the microwave was heating up your food, you prepared and turned on the coffee pot. Coffee and leftovers: the best dinner ever. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best dinner ever, but it would provide all the energy needed to fill out a pile of applications. 

Not wanting to get food on your applications, you ate your dinner in a hurry, practically standing with your plate over the sink. Then you poured yourself a large mug of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. The Kaiba Corporation application was the most important, so you grabbed that one first. It started off very basic: name, address, education history, past job experience, and all the other stuff you’d expect to see on an application.

Then the application's questions started to take a turn to the bizarre. 

_How tall are you? How much do you weigh?_

“What the heck! Why is my height and weight relevant?” You threw your pen down and glared at the application before skimming the rest of it. You discovered that the second half mostly consisted of personal questions. Some of the questions even asked about your medical history, which wasn't something a potential employer should ask about. You angrily set that application to the side and started the other ones. Maybe Kaiba Corporation wasn’t the company for you.

\-----

Your indignation lasted until Saturday morning. At that point, you gave in and hurried to finish the applications so that you could make in to Kaiba Corp. in time for the IQ test. The IQ testing began at noon, and you didn’t want to run the risk that someone qualified would be found before the next test.

You’d looked up Entry Level position in Kaiba Corp. The work hours were a bit on the long side, and there weren’t many vacation days, but those were the only downsides to working in the company. The pay and benefits outdid any other company by a long shot. So yes, their questions were invasive and made you uncomfortable, but you wanted a job in the company. You _needed_ a job there.

When you showed up at the Kaiba Corp. building, you were immediately directed to the fourth floor for testing. The elevators were crowded, but you managed to make your way up to the fourth floor before it was officially noon. As you nervously smoothed your hair, you realized that you hadn’t had to rush as much. There was a long line still waiting to sign in. 

The line itself was a little scary, and that had nothing to do with its size. No, the line was composed entirely of women, and their outfits varied from professional office worker to professional hooker. Some of them were so young that you had a hard time believing that they had yet to graduate from high school. 

If this was what was normal for a Kaiba Corporation applicant… well, the IQ test and invasive questions made sense now. They needed to weed out all of the women who were applying for the sole purpose of trying to get at Seto Kaiba. 

Seto Kaiba was thirty three years old, and no longer as young as he was when he first took over the company, but he was still very attractive and very rich. He was no longer the most eligible bachelor in Japan, that title fell to the lead actor of some melodrama you weren’t into, but he was still ranked among the top five and that was clearly enough for these women. 

_Then again, some of these women might not be that choosy._ You eyed the woman standing in front of you. She was dressed in a pair of tiny little shorts that didn’t even cover her butt. She shifted in place, and you caught a glimpse of her face. It was caked in makeup. She looked like a hooker, and you weren’t trying to be rude. You genuinely thought she might be a hooker. 

You eventually reached the front of the line where a man handed you a pencil, an answer key, and a booklet. He explained that you would turn your application in with the test whenever you finished. No calculators were allowed but you could write in the booklet if you wished. You took everything from the man and entered the room. It was large and spacious with plenty of room for the many desks, and you wondered what purpose it had served before being turned into a center for IQ testing. Perhaps it had been a room for large conferences? You weren’t sure, but you didn’t have enough time to give it careful consideration. 

Most of the desks littering the room were taken, but there were still plenty of empty ones to choose from. They were prepared for the large amount of women who wanted a chance to work for Seto Kaiba. Well, you didn’t care where you sat, so you settled into the nearest empty desk and got started on the test.

\-----

It didn’t take long before you were called for an interview. Apparently you had scored highly on the IQ test because you were scheduled for an interview with Seto Kaiba himself. Normally company CEOs didn’t conduct interviews, so now you really were curious about the job you were applying for. Hopefully you weren’t about to become his personal assistant. It would explain all the woman at the test, but it really wasn’t a job you were qualified to do.

At this point, you couldn’t afford to be picky, but you didn’t want to be a personal assistant either.

You gave yourself plenty of time to walk to the interview and picked up some ice cream on the way in an effort to calm your nerves. The ice cream settled some of your nerves, but your stomach remained a knotted mess. 

By the time you made it to the Kaiba Corp. building, you still had about fifteen minutes to spare. So you asked where the nearest restroom was and thoroughly washed your hands. You dried them and studied yourself in the mirror. Your makeup, what little you were wearing, was in place and barely noticeable. Your hair was perfectly styled. Your outfit was in place. 

You looked like a professional. Hopefully Kaiba wouldn’t find a flaw. Sure you looked a little young for any high-ranking job, but you were older than you looked, and Kaiba had to understand that age didn’t mean a thing. He was running Kaiba Corp. while he was still in his teens after all. 

Since you were instructed to check in at the top floor, you made your way up there via the elevators. You would have preferred to get the last of your nerves out by taking the stairs, but the top floor was simply too high for that. You didn’t want to arrive sweaty and out of breath. 

When the doors opened on the top floor, you walked into a waiting room. There were two double doors off to the side, and a woman was sitting at a desk near the doors. You assumed that she was who you should check in with, but she was on the phone. You settled into one of the chairs placed against the wall and waited for her conversation to end. 

The conversation didn’t take very long at all. She placed the phone down on her desk before smiling at you. “Hello, what can I do for you today?”

You stood, smiled back, and gave her your name. Since you were feeling nervous, you weren’t sure if you were in the right place. “I’m here for an interview?” 

She looked over at her computer screen and tapped a button. “Yes, I see your name right here.” She pressed a button on her desk and leaned forward slightly. “Mr. Kaiba, your two o’clock is here. I’ll send her in when you’re ready.” She motioned for you to have a seat before she ignored you to carry on with her work.

The entire wall behind your seat was a window, and it made the room seem even brighter and larger than it was. You tilted your head back and looked at everything that was going on outside as you let your mind drift. You avoided thinking of the interview that was about to happen. Instead you thought about the people below and the hustle and bustle of the small city of Domino.

“Send her in.” The harsh, deep voice interrupted your thoughts and nearly startled you out of your chair.

You looked over as the secretary pressed a button and motioned for you to go through the double doors near her desk. You stood up, smoothed out your clothes, and nervously approached the doors. You paused before opening the doors and glance at the secretary, but she was no longer paying any attention to you. She seemed to be arguing with someone on the phone. So you took a deep breath and pushed the doors open.

As the doors swung open, your eyes met the clear blue eyes of Seto Kaiba himself. You froze in place as he looked you up and down. It didn’t look like much had changed from when he was nineteen and in every single newspaper and tabloid. 

You had had such a prepubescent crush on him back then. In fact, you had hung up pictures from magazines and newspapers all over your walls. Not that you would ever admit to this fact out loud, but seeing him now brought back a few memories. 

It was difficult to remember why you were really here as you studied his handsome face. It seemed like little frown lines were starting to take root around his eyes and mouth, but overall, Kaiba looked pretty decent for his age. You had expected him to be fat or balding. At the very least you expected him to have greying hair. His attractiveness completely caught you off-guard. 

“Please sit,” Kaiba interrupted your thoughts, reminding you that you had yet to move away from his doorway. 

You tried to pretend that you were confident and walked over to the chair in front of his desk without hesitating. You sat down and smiled slightly as you introduced yourself. When he didn’t immediately say anything, you held out a hand, thinking that maybe he wanted to shake your hand in greeting.

Kaiba simply stared at your outstretched hand, and you quickly placed it back in your lap. He openly studied you once more before speaking again. “I’ll get straight to the point. You’re clearly very suitable. Much more qualified than any of the other applicants.” He paused and seemed to be trying to read your mind. “What possessed you to apply?”

That was a standard question. Companies always wanted to know why you wanted to work for them. “Well, I was looking for a job, and I stopped here because I wanted to work for this company. Kaiba Corporation has the most interesting and recent technology. The woman at the front desk gave me the application, and I knew that I wanted to work here no matter what I had to do.” You decided not to include the fact that you almost hadn’t applied because of all the personal information required. He might think you had something to hide if he thought you were too hesitant to reveal anything about yourself.

Kaiba looked unsatisfied. There was something about you that confused him, but you weren’t sure what it was. He looked down at the papers in front of him, and his brow furrowed in thought or confusion.

“Well you’re obviously intelligent—which is the most important factor for me to consider. Your IQ score was in the gifted range, and the college you attended is one of the best in Japan.” He looked up at you again. “It doesn’t state your class ranking.”

You smiled sheepishly. “That’s because I couldn’t quite remember. It wasn’t that important to me. I was thirty-fifth, I think, or somewhere in there.”

“That’s decent… I suppose,” he muttered, looking back at the papers.

“You probably graduated first in your class,” you said, smiling. You wanted to make idle conversation with this man and figure out what was bothering him. Perhaps you could find a way to convince him that you were the girl for the job.

“Yes, but I only attended the local university. Graduating first in my class there was hardly an accomplishment.” He looked at you expectantly, like he knew exactly what you were going to say next.

You didn’t let that defer you from responding. “Yes, I heard about that like everyone else. Apparently all the top universities were insulted that you chose not to attend them.” You paused and met his eyes. He was still looking at you expectantly so you continued on. “I was actually surprised that you attended college at all. It must have taken up what little spare time you had.”

From the way he raised an eyebrow at you, it was clear that your words were unexpected. You didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“I wanted to have a back-up plan on the very slight chance that something happened to my company. I like to be prepared for anything.” He seemed to be studying you again, and you wondered what it was about you that left this man so frustrated and unsatisfied. He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a small pile of papers.

“I’d like to offer you”—he paused for a moment—“the _position._ ” You didn’t like the way he said position. It seemed… odd. He handed the contracts over to you and continued, “You’re the only applicant that I’ve been able to tolerate. Intelligent, okay to look at, but most of all, you’re the only one that I’ve had anything resembling a conversation with.”

You took the contracts from him, but you had no clue why any of that was relevant. 

Then again, you’d had no clue why most of what was on the application was relevant either. You decided that this was a smile and nod moment as you asked him for a pen.

He looked a bit surprised. “Aren’t you going to read the paperwork?”

You almost rolled your eyes but stopped yourself in time. There was absolutely no way in hell you were going to read all of that legal documentation. The contracts looked like they were almost twenty pages long! It wasn't like you were signing your life away or anything, and you had a very low tolerance for reading legal documents. Low tolerance meaning that you never did it. But honestly, who actually read any legal documents? Nobody that’s who. Well, Seto Kaiba might, but his signature had a lot more weight than yours did.

You weren’t going to say any of that to Kaiba—he might decide not to give you the job—so you opted for something simpler. “I looked up the specifics online. I know what it says.” Okay so that was kind of a lie. You had looked up Kaiba Corporation online, but you didn’t know exactly what your job entailed.

As Kaiba gave you a pen, you realized, a bit belatedly, that you had never actually asked what job he was actually interviewing you for. You began signing the documents as you thought back to your interaction with that lady almost a week ago. How had she known that you had been qualified for this job? I mean, for all she knew you could have wanted a job as an accountant within the company, and this was obviously not a job as an accountant since you were actually qualified. _Then again_ , you thought as you considered all the women at the IQ testing, _most people who applied for work within Kaiba Corp. didn’t seem to be very qualified in the first place_.

You finished signing, pleased to know that you had a job now and curious about what exactly the job was. (Now was definitely not a good time to ask. That would reveal the obvious lie that you had just told your new boss.) You gave Kaiba the papers back, and he signed them all as well. Then you were startled when he gave them to his secretary to sign. You didn’t even notice her enter the room, and you wondered why she was even here.

Kaiba must have noticed your reaction to her presence because he explained, “She’s signing the documents as a witness.”

 _Wait a second_ , you thought as Kaiba turned to his secretary and told her to make copies and file the documents. You didn’t think that the basic paperwork for a job required a witness. Usually it just contained the basic waivers and guarantees that you could work. Small stuff like that. What had you just signed? Now you were cursing yourself for not at least looking at the documents. You would have been less clueless now.

You almost asked for the papers back but realized that Kaiba was giving you a very impatient glare.

“Um, I’m sorry?” Your apology was a knee-jerk reaction. His glare was a bit terrifying. 

“I asked if you walked, drove, or took the bus to get here.” 

He was practically growling at you, but you were too surprised to worry. His question was so personal. Why should he care how you got here?

But he was your new boss, and you didn’t want him to fire you. “I walked. My apartment is close enough, and I kind of like walking.”

“Hm. Well I’ll have my driver take you home so that you can pack.”

“I’m sorry, pack?” You were exceedingly confused and somewhat terrified now. Had you signed up for a job somewhere in another country?

“I figured you’d want to move in with me as quickly as possible.” He seemed to be studying you again, but this time, he was smirking. “One of the clauses of the contract states that you’ll move in with me, and we are married now after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you all going "WTF?!" now? Good. I intended it to happen that way. The next chapter will pick up from this one and explain everything. So hold off on all judgments and accusations until after you've read that one please.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This particular update took a while because I had to rewrite part of this chapter. This story is incredibly old; I started it back in 2008. I tried to just edit this chapter and post it, but I couldn't. Some of the dialogue was simply too horrible. It was melodramatic. 
> 
> I hope I made it better. I really do.  
> Enjoy~

Seto Kaiba’s words simply didn’t make sense to you. How could you be married to him? That just… How could something like that happen? You were here for a job interview. Kaiba barely even knew you. He had to be confused. You had to be hearing things. Nothing added up!

The easiest thing to believe was that you had simply misheard him. “I’m sorry,” you began, “I have to move where?” 

“You really didn’t know why you were here.” Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “Why did you think we were meeting?”

“I thought this was a job interview!” You were starting to sound a bit hysterical, and you didn’t mean to raise your voice, but it was hard enough to regulate your breathing at the moment. 

Kaiba reached down and pulled a bottle of water out of his desk. He held out the water. “Calm down.” It sounded like an order, and you bristled a little but took the water from him.

You unscrewed the cap and began drinking. You drank and drank and drank, and Kaiba raised his eyebrow as you downed the water. The water did calm you down a bit, and you hadn’t realized that you were even thirsty before this moment.

“Now that you’re my wife,” he started, “you’ll have to read anything you sign. Your signature contains power.” 

At first, you thought he was joking, but he looked completely serious. You started to speak but had to stop to collect your thoughts. You placed a hand down on his desk. “We can’t be married. There’s no way.” 

“My secretary will be back with your copies of the contract and marriage license.” 

You fell back into your chair. The situation was really starting to sink in, and it was difficult to remain in a state of panic while Kaiba was so calm. “Why?”

He remained silent until was clear that your question consisted of that single word. “Why what?” 

“Why would you marry me?” Even disregarding the general insanity of this situation, Kaiba marrying you didn’t make sense. “You don’t even know me. Why would you want to marry some stranger?” 

“You haven’t read the news lately, have you?” 

You shook your head. “No. I’ve been busy looking for a job, but I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

“I’ve been searching for a wife. The major shareholders of my company are worried about what will happen to my company after my death. I don’t plan to die anytime in the near future. They want me to train somebody to take over for me—”

“Wait, wait, wait!” you interrupted, holding up your hands. “I don’t know anything about business. You can’t train me to take over. I’d be horrible at it.” 

“Of course not. Ideally, I’ll raise a child, and they’ll take over Kaiba Corporation, but really, I just needed to get married so my shareholders would shut up. Only a Kaiba can take over the company, and I wasn’t going to change that just so someone could try to overthrow me.” 

You just stared at him. Most of that had made sense to you, but you felt like you were missing something. Why would anyone try to overthrow him? How was that relevant to this? 

“Mr. Kaiba? I have the copies for Mrs. Kaiba. Shall I bring them in?” 

Kaiba reached over and pressed down a button on his intercom. “Yes.”

A moment later, the door of his office opened, and Kaiba’s secretary walked into the room. She dropped a pile of papers in front of you. Then she turned to Kaiba. “I’ve sent the official paperwork over to the town hall via courier.” 

“Good. Dismissed.” 

The woman nodded and left without giving you a second glance. 

“I want an annulment,” you said before Kaiba could say anything. “I don’t want to be married to you. So let’s just end this before anyone finds out.” 

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “If you read the contracts you signed, you’ll discover that you actually gave up the right to ask for an annulment or divorce. Only I can make that decision.” 

“UGH!” You grabbed the papers and started looking at the one on the top of the stack. It was the license, and your signature sat at the bottom of the document, mocking you. How did you sign something like this without noticing? 

You tore the license off the top of the stack and let it fall to the floor. It wasn’t important. You needed to read the contract. It was the only way to figure out what was really going on.

Well, you tried to read the contract, but it was too formal, and you were starting to get a headache. You rubbed at your eyes and looked over Kaiba’s desk. “Can I use a highlighter and a pen?” 

He didn’t say anything, and you realized that he was just staring at you. 

“Go home,” he suddenly said. “Sleep on it. I’ll send someone over tomorrow morning to help you move.”

Your head was throbbing, but you could ignore it. It wasn’t too bad. “No. I can’t stay married to you. I need to read this contract. There has to be a way to end this.” 

Kaiba didn’t have any sympathy for you. It was all too clear that he wouldn’t be letting you out of this arrangement. “Nothing will change. Let yourself get used to the idea and rest. We’ll discuss more of the details tomorrow.” 

You tried to protest, but he remained firm. Eventually he threatened to have you escorted to his place. You didn’t like the idea of that so he won the argument and you left. The headache taking over probably weakened your resolve. Aspirin helped a headache, but the best thing to do was just sleep it off when possible. 

By the time you made it home, you felt exhausted. You might have started crying at some point, but you weren’t sure. It just felt unreal. All of it felt like some bizarre dream. So you put your pajamas on and took a nap.

\-----

The sound of your doorbell woke you up. As you rolled over, you tried to remember whether or not you were expecting anyone to visit. You weren’t. You stared at your clock, wondering if you were willing to get out of bed or not. It was nine thirty-six at night. You were tired, and your body barely responded to your brain. Whoever that was really needed to go away.

You pulled the covers over your head and tried to ignore your doorbell, but it just kept ringing. The person at the door was persistent and annoying. Eventually, the sound drove you out of bed. You threw off your covers and stormed over to the door. Before opening the door, you used the peephole to see who it was. There was a man standing outside your apartment. He was unfamiliar with long black hair and dressed in a button-up shirt. You groaned and opened the door, wondering what he wanted. 

You glared at him in silence, unwilling to greet him.

He smiled and said your name like a question. 

“Yes.” Was he looking for you for some reason? You hoped he wasn't one of those singing telegram people. 

Suddenly you found yourself being hugged by this man. It was not a pleasant experience, and you shoved him away with both hands. “Get off of me.” You took in a deep breath, ready to scream.

The strange man pulled away and grinned at you cheekily. “I guess I should’ve introduced myself first. I’m Mokuba Kaiba, and I wanted to meet my new sister. Sorry I came by so late, but Seto wouldn’t tell me where to find you, and I had to wait for him to leave his office before I could steal your address.” 

Mokuba’s statement reminded you of the events of this afternoon. Why couldn’t they have been a nightmare? You frowned. “I don’t know why you’re so excited. I didn’t mean to marry your brother.” 

Mokuba’s smile diminished a little. “You aren’t happy at all about marrying Seto?” 

“No.” 

“Why not?” 

This conversation was going to take a while. You could tell that this guy wouldn’t take a simple response, and he didn’t seem willing to leave. “Come in and let me close the door.” As soon as Mokuba cleared your doorway, you closed your door and relocked it. 

Then you went into your kitchen and pulled some ice cream out of your freezer. “Want some?” you offered. 

“Please.” 

“Okay.” You tossed him a spoon and peeled the carton open. You began to eat out of the container before realizing that Mokuba didn’t seem to know what to do. 

“Go ahead and eat out of the container. We’re family now after all.” Besides, you'd spent too much time in high school sharing food and drinks with all your friends. You could care less about 'cooties'. 

Mokuba smiled brightly and began to help you eat the ice cream. 

“So Mokuba, this is family bonding time. What screwed up your brother enough to make him willing to marry a random stranger?” 

Mokuba didn’t look too happy with that question. “I don’t think my brother believes in love. He never really planned on getting married. I guess he just sees this as a mutually beneficial arrangement.” 

“But seriously? A random stranger. I could be a serial killer for all you know.” 

“You aren’t,” Mokuba stated confidently. “Seto probably had a background check done on you before he called you for an interview.” 

“Great.” You shoved a spoonful of ice cream into your mouth. For a while, you sat with Mokuba, eating ice cream in silence. 

“I still don’t understand your brother.” 

Mokuba shrugged. “Honestly? Sometimes I don’t either.” He took a spoonful of ice cream and ate it. He seemed to be considering something. So you waited for him to speak again. Eventually, he did. “He must have liked something about you. Seto wouldn’t have married you otherwise.” 

You didn’t know what to say to that. Kaiba couldn’t honestly like anything about you. He didn’t know you. He didn’t know anything about you. 

You were saved from responding when Mokuba jumped out of his seat. 

He grinned as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a flashing cell phone. “It was on vibrate,” he explained before flipping it open. “Hello? Oh, hey, Seto. I’m at your new wife's apartment.” 

There was silence as Mokuba listened to Kaiba. You munched on ice cream, wondering what was going on. 

“I know you told me not to, but I wanted to meet her… No, I couldn’t wait until tomorrow… Well, HA! You were wrong. She didn’t kick me out. We’re eating ice cream together right now.” Then Mokuba looked at you. “You didn’t tell me she was so young Seto.” Mokuba listened to his brother and started laughing. “No way, Seto! Nu-uh. She’s not twenty-six. She totally lied on her application.” 

You raised an eyebrow at the boy who was speaking like you weren’t even there. Then you got up and left the boy in the kitchen. His voice faded as you headed into your bedroom where you kept your birth certificate. You planned to find it so you could prove to Mokuba that you were twenty-six. 

As you were looking through your files, Mokuba walked into your room. His conversation with his brother seemed to be over. “What are you doing?” 

“I’ll show you in a second,” you said, still looking for that birth certificate. “So what’s up with your brother?” 

“Oh, he’s mad at me for coming over here. He thinks you need space or something—” 

“FOUND IT!” You leapt off your bed with the piece of paper in hand and shoved it in Mokuba’s face. “See! I am twenty-six!” 

Mokuba was looking at you like you were slightly insane, but he took the paper and studied it. “I guess you are. You really don’t look it though. I thought you were maybe twenty when I saw you.” 

You took the birth certificate back from Mokuba and put it away in your file folder. “Well now you know.” You put the file folder away and faced Mokuba again. “So are you going home now?” 

Confusion was clear on Mokuba’s face. “Nooooooo.” He drew out the word as he slowly shook his head.

“Well doesn’t your brother want you home?” 

Mokuba looked extremely smug. “He did, but then I told him that I was warming you up to the idea of being married to him.” 

You laughed, but it wasn’t a very deep laugh. It was a little light and bordered on hysterical. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the fact that I married Seto Kaiba on accident. I’m kind of dumb aren’t I?” Now you were starting to feel really sad. You were married to a complete stranger. You needed more of the ice cream. 

Mokuba seemed to catch your change in mood. He draped an arm around your shoulders and gave you a one-armed hug. “Hey, at least Seto is hot, right?” 

Now that part made you laugh. You smiled at Mokuba. “Yeah, at least he’s sexy. Let’s go finish off that ice cream and you can tell me all about my new husband.” Then something occurred to you. “Hey Mokuba, you’re Kaiba’s younger brother.” 

Mokuba looked at you and his face clearly said, ‘No duh.’ 

“Well then why can’t you take over the company?” 

“I refused. I don’t want it.” Mokuba smiled and pat your back. “Sorry, but I’m actually kind of glad my brother found someone he was willing to marry. I hate the company.” 

You sighed. “But I don’t know what to do. I mean, just yesterday I was completely single, and now I’m married to a man I’ve never met before. The only thing I know about your brother is that he’s the most powerful man in Japan.” 

Mokuba looked uncomfortable. “Well, you’re going to learn about him.” 

“I’m out of ice cream!” you cried as you tossed the carton at the trash. Mokuba looked very scared. Just a moment ago you looked like you were about to cry. Now you were angry because the ice cream was gone. You saw his wide eyes and threw yourself into a kitchen chair. 

“You don’t understand Mokuba. I can’t wallow in self-pity properly without ice cream. It doesn’t work.” 

“Wallowing in self-pity seems like a bad idea to me...” Mokuba trailed off as you glared at him. Then he smiled. “Let’s go get more! I’ll drive.” 

“WOO HOO! You’re the best brother ever! Let me go get my keys.” You bounced off to get your keys, suddenly happy again. You shoved them in your purse and met Mokuba at your door. You made sure to close and lock it as you both left the apartment and even double-checked the door before letting Mokuba lead you away.

You followed Mokuba out to the parking lot where he bounced over to a sleek black car. “This is my car,” he said with a huge grin and a flourish. 

You were sure that he wanted you to be impressed now. “Erm, nice car?” 

You imagined that Mokuba was sweat dropping at the moment. “You don’t know anything about cars do you?” 

Now it was your turn to grin. “Not a thing!” 

Mokuba just opened the passenger door with a sigh. You thanked him and got in. He shut the door behind you and went around to the driver’s side. He slid into the car with ease and started it up. Instantly loud rock music started playing. Mokuba turned it down a little as he backed out of the parking spot. 

“So where are we going?” 

“Ummmm, turn right. There’s a small market that’s open until midnight a few blocks down.” 

Mokuba drove with you directing him, and eventually, he pulled into a parking spot in front of the closed mini-mart. 

“No no no! Why are they closed?!” you cried. The market couldn’t be closed! You needed ice cream.

Mokuba didn’t say anything. He simply looked down and pointed at the clock. Your eyes followed his finger, and you realized why they were closed. It was 12:07. You frowned. You’d missed getting ice cream by mere minutes. 

“We can get ice cream at my place if you want?” 

Your eyes shot over to Mokuba. He was busy doing something on his cell phone and wasn’t looking at you. “No, it’s okay Mokuba. You’re probably tired.” 

He looked up from his cell phone to grin at you. “No way. I’m a night owl.” He started up his car. “Off to my house we go!” 

You looked out the window as Mokuba drove. “So where do you live Mokuba?” 

“Well, I actually have my own place in Tokyo, but while I’m in Domino, I stay with Seto.” 

“Wait, we’re going to the Kaiba mansion right now?” You stared at Mokuba, horror struck. 

“Yep.” 

You buried your face in your hands. “Mokuba take me home,” you mumbled into your palms. 

“Sorry, what was that? Oh hey! We’re here!” 

You looked up as Mokuba keyed in the combo to open the gates. You had passed by the Kaiba Mansion a few times in the years that you’d spent in Domino, so you already knew how big it was and how beautiful the land around it was. At the moment, it was a very odd looking at that mansion and knowing that you’d be moving in tomorrow. 

Mokuba drove down the long driveway and into a large garage. As you got out of Mokuba’s car, you looked at all the cars around you. 

“Are these all your brother’s or are some yours?” you asked curiously. 

Mokuba looked around and shrugged. “They’re mostly Seto’s. Only two of them are mine.” 

Mokuba began to head for the house, and you followed him. “Why does he need so many when he’s driven everywhere in his limo anyway?” 

Mokuba laughed. “Don’t tell him I told you, but he likes going out driving when he’s really stressed. He speeds too, but he won’t admit it.” 

You smiled and laughed as Mokuba led you into the mansion. Mokuba unlocked a side door and opened it to reveal the kitchen. He stepped aside to let you go in first, and you idly wondered why the kitchen light was on. Your question was quickly answered as you noticed someone sitting at the kitchen counter drinking what looked like coffee. The man’s blue eyes only looked mildly surprised as they shifted from you to Mokuba. Mokuba grinned at him. 

“Hey Seto! You got my text?” 

Kaiba simply raised an eyebrow at his brother. 

“Yeah yeah. I know what you’re thinking.” You expected Mokuba to stick his tongue out at his big brother, but instead, he turned to you and asked what kind of ice cream you wanted. 

“Coffee,” you blurted out without thinking. The delicious smell of the coffee that Kaiba was drinking was probably to blame, and you blushed slightly as you realized that. 

Kaiba smirked and took a sip of his coffee, his eyes locked on yours, and you knew that he'd figured out why you'd asked for coffee ice cream. You broke eye contact and looked over at Mokuba. He had a giant freezer door open and was busy digging around in the freezer. He quickly surfaced, carrying a carton of coffee ice cream. He plopped the carton down on the counter and then dug around in a drawer for two spoons. He sat down at the counter, and from the smile he gave you as he motioned you over, you knew that he had left the seat between him and his big brother open on purpose. 

You sat down between the two and began to eat the ice cream. This time, there wasn’t a light cheery air, and you felt slightly awkward sitting between the two Kaiba brothers. As you ate, you wondered if perhaps this entire experience was just a truly bizarre and lengthy dream. It definitely felt like one at the moment. 

Kaiba’s voice scattered your thoughts. “Mokuba, we have plenty of bowls.” 

Mokuba simply looked at his brother and grinned. “We’re bonding.” 

You weren’t sure, but you thought that you might have heard Kaiba growl. You turned slightly on your chair and looked at the man next to you. He was definitely giving his brother a glare of death. As you watched him, he seemed to sense your eyes. He looked down at you, and his glare softened and faded. 

He raised an eyebrow and you took it as a ‘What do you want?’ or at least, you hoped that was what it meant. 

 

You wanted to say something to him, anything at all, he was your husband after all, but you weren’t sure what to say. You weren’t even sure what to call him. Should you call him ‘Seto’? 

“Erm, want some?” You held up your spoon full of ice cream and inwardly smacked yourself. _Want some?_ Was that the best you could come up with? 

Kaiba simply took your hand and used it to guide the spoon to his mouth. You blushed like crazy as you pulled your hand back, and he smirked at you. He was definitely sexy, and your childhood crush on him was coming back to you. 

“Hey, hey! I’m still here, so get a room if you’re going to undress each other with your eyes.” Mokuba’s voice broke the moment, and you were thankful for that. You turned back to Mokuba and noticed that he was almost finished with the ice cream. 

“No way, Mokuba! Mine!” You grabbed the carton and hugged it to yourself. You took a big spoonful and shoved it in your mouth. 

“Heeeeeeeey,” Mokuba whined. “Sharing is caring.” 

“Well I’m not sharing.” You stuck your tongue out at Mokuba and then swat at his hand with your spoon when he reached for the ice cream carton anyway. You got up from your chair and danced over to the other side of Kaiba so you could use him as a barrier between you and Mokuba. 

Then your spoon was snatched from you, and you watched with wide eyes as Kaiba used your spoon to steal some ice cream. 

“No fair! I wasn’t expecting an attack from you too!” you cried as Kaiba took the last bite of the ice cream. Kaiba smirked at you. 

Then he got up and left the kitchen with only the parting remark, “I’ll see you both tomorrow. Goodnight.” 

You just pouted at the empty carton of ice cream as Mokuba offered to drive you back to your home.

Tomorrow... Tomorrow you would have to face that confusing man again. Tomorrow you would have to face all of this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't been updating much on here. I've been busy, and I'm mainly located on another archive so I kind of forgot I was crossposting stuff here. Still, this story does require some editing before I'm willing to crosspost new chapters here. This chapter has been a little edited, but I'm sure I missed stuff.  
> I do apologize about the wait. D:

“Go away!” you mumbled as you buried your head under your pillow.

You tried to ignore the constant pounding on your door, but eventually, you ran out of patience. You crawled out of bed with a glare, intent on figuring out who was waking you up this time. Once you reached your front door, you flung it open and unleashed your glare on the woman in front of you. Then your eyes went past her and to the group of people behind her.

“Sorry, I think you’ve got the wrong apartment.” You shut your door, but the knocking immediately started up again. You pulled the door back open and raised an eyebrow at the woman.

“Are you Mrs. Kaiba?”

You rolled your eyes, marrying Kaiba had made you awfully popular. “Yes, but—”

“Then I have the right apartment.” The woman walked past you and into your apartment. The group of people behind her all followed her example, and you just stood by your open door in shock. What was going on?

You left your door open and stormed after the woman. “Excuse me? Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Yukina, the housekeeper." She bowed slightly. “Mr. Kaiba put me in charge of your move into the manor.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m not moving.” You smiled at Yukina. “So you and all these other people can just leave now.”

Yukina’s smile dropped off of her face, and you had the feeling that things weren’t going to go your way.

“Mr. Kaiba told me to take care of moving your stuff, and until he instructs me otherwise, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to start working.” She turned and began telling people to pack things in boxes or to get the furniture into the truck.

You took off for your bedroom, mumbling the entire way. Once there, you closed and locked your door. Then you grabbed your cell phone off your dresser. You were going to call Kaiba to clear things up and see if he could get his employees out of your apartment.

Then you realized that you didn’t actually have Kaiba’s phone number. You frowned at your phone, half expecting it to solve your problems and dial Kaiba itself before you suddenly came up with a plan and dialed information. You asked the operator to connect you to Kaiba Corp. After getting connected, you waited until someone picked up the phone.

“Hello, thank you for calling Kaiba Corp. How may I help you?”

“Um, hi, can you connect me to Kaiba’s personal secretary?”

“Sorry, miss.” The woman’s words sounded rehearsed. “I can’t do that. Have a ni—”

“No wait!” you interrupted to keep her from hanging up on you. “I’m her sister. I need to get ahold of her and her cell is off.”

“Oh.” The woman sounded like she only half believed you. “I’m sorry, but none of us are allowed to take personal calls during business hours. You’ll just have to call her cell later.”

Your eyes narrowed at the phone. This plan wasn’t working too well. “Don’t worry. It’ll only take a moment. I need to tell her that my flight to Domino was rescheduled for today.” You tried your best to sound slightly nervous.

“Sorry, I still can’t connect you, but I’ll pass along the message.”

“Bu—”

“Have a nice day!” Click.

You stared at your phone. She had hung up on you. Now what were you going to do about the people in your apartment?

At that moment, you were startled by a knock at your bedroom door. You ignored it while hoping that they would just go away.

“Mrs. Kaiba? Please don’t be difficult. We’re simply doing our jobs. Now unlock the door please.” You hated Yukina’s tranquil and rational voice; it made you feel like you were being childish. Going over to the door, you unlocked it and walked past her and out of your apartment. You decided that physically hunting down Seto Kaiba would be the only way to get this mess all sorted out. So you picked up your keys and purse and set out for Kaiba Corp.

Once you’d reached Kaiba Corp, you were almost too nervous to approach the building. The entire sidewalk in front of the building was swarmed with reporters who seemed to only be held back by the security at the door. You weren’t sure if you should try to fight your way through and into the building or if you should give up and just go home.

You decided to get into the building. You didn’t like giving up and admitting defeat and, well, you weren’t quite sure where your ‘home’ was at the moment. So you gathered all your courage and began pushing your way through the mob of reporters. Unfortunately for you, they were all too busy yelling questions at the guards and trying to get in for any of them to notice your polite ‘excuse me’s. Fortunately, one of the guards seemed to notice you, and he fished you out of the mob. You smiled and thanked him before walking into Kaiba Corp.

At the elevator, you were stopped by a guard.

“May I see your ID please?”

You looked up at him and blinked innocently. “What ID?”

“You need to show me your Kaiba Corp employee ID, or I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

You frowned. “But I’m not an employee here. I had an interview yesterday with Mr. Kaiba, and he asked me to come back today.” You smiled at the guard and hoped that your half truth would get you past him.

The guard was skeptical. Your lies were just not working out for you today. "Then you need to check in at the front desk, miss."

“Can’t you check with Kaiba or his secretary to validate my story?”

The man glared at you. He clearly believed you were lying, but he pulled out his walkie-talkie anyway. He gruffly asked for your license to check your name before pressing the button.

“I have a Miss—" He studied your license and carefully read your full name, "—here asking to speak with Mr. Kaiba.”

The device buzzed. “You better let her through then. She’s his new wife.”

Maybe it was a bit childish, but you were pleased when the security guard nearly dropped his walkie-talkie in shock. He quickly stepped aside to let you into the elevator, shoving your license back at you.

“Sorry, Mrs. Kaiba. Have a nice day!”

You rolled your eyes at his sudden change in behavior and pressed the button for the top floor. After a short wait in the elevator, you finally reached Kaiba's floor. You left the elevator and walked toward the secretary’s desk, trying to recall why you had come here. Wading through the mob at the front door and dealing with the guard in the lobby made you frustrated enough to forget your original goal. Then you remembered that there was a moving team in your apartment, and that it was led by a maid who only took orders from Kaiba. You smiled at the secretary and asked to speak to Kaiba, hoping that she wouldn’t ask any questions.

“I’m sorry. I’m going to have to ask you to wait for a bit.” The secretary smiled apologetically. “He’s in a meeting right now.”

You frowned but sat in the waiting area patiently. As you waited, you began to hum a random tune to yourself. You only hummed a few bars of the song before the secretary glared at you, and you quickly lapsed back into silence, wondering just how long you were going to be stuck waiting for Kaiba.

Right when you reached the point where you were seriously considering leaving before you went insane, Kaiba walked out of the elevator and stormed into his office. When he slammed the door shut, the windows shook a bit.

You simply sat there, staring at the door. Now didn’t seem like a very good time to talk to him... at least not if you wanted to live to see another day.

“Minami, do I have any more appointments for today?”

You were startled at the sound of Kaiba’s voice filling the air. His secretary, however, was not. She pressed the button and responded without hesitation.

“Yes, sir. A meeting with Nagasaki at three. Shall I push it back to tomorrow?”

“Please do. Is there anything else that requires my attention today?”

Minami glanced over at you, and you knew what was coming next. You wildly shook your head no, but it was to no avail.

“Your new wife is here asking to speak with you. Shall I let her in?”

The pause was definite and you frowned, hoping that Kaiba would say no. The way he had stalked into his office and slammed his door had been scary.

“Go ahead and let her in, Minami.”

Shit.

You slowly got up from your seat and walked over to the double doors leading to Kaiba’s office. You hesitantly pushed the doors open and saw Kaiba sitting at his desk. You smiled at him from the doorway, but he only raised an eyebrow in response.

“I assume you’re visiting me because of Yukina?”

He was a step ahead of the game, as expected. “Yeah. I was wondering if you could call her off?”

Kaiba sighed. “Come in and have a seat. Shut the door behind you.”

You, quite frankly, didn’t like the sound of that. It sounded like a definite ‘no’. Still, you did as he asked and sat in the seat in front of his desk. Then stared at him patiently waiting.

“Have you had a chance to look at your copy of the contract yet?”

You frowned. You’d meant to do that yesterday, but Mokuba had distracted you. Well, lying about it wasn’t going to get you anywhere so you grudgingly admitted that you hadn’t read it yet.

“Part of the contract states that you will move in with me. There are other stipulations, but we probably shouldn’t go into those yet.”

“But I don’t want to move in with you. I don’t even want to be married to you! Can’t we just cancel the contract or something?”

“Of course not. A contract is a contract.”

You sighed and leaned forward with your elbows on Kaiba’s desk. “But what if you fell in love?”

Kaiba looked confused, and you grinned, wondering how often that happened.

“What do you mean?” he inquired.

“I mean like, what if you meet a girl and fall in love? Then wouldn’t you want to get out of this contract?” Kaiba didn't seem convinced so you decided to take another approach. “What if I find a guy and fall in love? What then? Can’t you see why I don’t want to be married to you? I hardly know you, and I always thought that I’d marry someone I loved.”

Kaiba thought for a moment. “If you fall in love with someone, we’ll discuss ending the contract. However, I doubt that will ever happen.”

“Well, yeah, not if I’m married." You frowned. “Especially not when I’m married to you, Kaiba. Any guy would fear your wrath.” You slumped down in your seat.

“Call me Seto.”

You blinked and looked at him. “What?”

“You called me Kaiba. We only met yesterday, but we are married, so you should use my given name.”

“Um, okay.” Well that was awkward. You really didn’t feel comfortable calling such a powerful man by his first name.

“May I call you by your first name as well?”

Oh geez, that was going to be even more awkward. But in this situation, it wasn't like you could say no without being rude. He had given you permission to use his first name, and he probably never did that.

“Sure.”

“Thank you." He carefully added on your first name, almost as if he were testing it out.

Oh yeah, that was going to take some getting used to.

“Now maybe you should head home? I do have work I need to attend to.”

Uh-oh. That reminded you that you still weren’t sure where to go home to. Your home was currently being packed up in cardboard boxes, and you didn’t really feel comfortable just going to Kaiba’s mansion even though he clearly wanted you to move there.

“Yeah, sure, I guess.” You stood up. You’d just go to your apartment and see what was going on there.

“I’ll have my driver bring you.” Kaiba pressed the button for his intercom. “Minami? Could you have my driver swing around to pick up my wife?”

“Yes, Mr. Kaiba.”

You nodded and turned for the door. Hopefully Kaiba’s driver would just take you somewhere without asking you. It would solve your dilemma about where to go.

“Wait one minute. I have a question for you before you leave.”

You turned and looked at Kaiba. “Yeah?”

“Would you care to go out to dinner with me tonight?”

“Sure,” you responded without thinking about it. Then it hit you. You had just been asked out on a date by Kaiba! Well, at least you thought that was what he was asking you.

He looked pleased. “I’ll probably be back from work by seven.”

“Ok, see you then.” You smiled and left his office.

Minami ended up showing you how to access the back exit of the building so that you could get into Kaiba’s limousine without the paparazzi at the front spotting you. The limousine driver greeted you, introduced himself, and then drove you to the Kaiba mansion.

As the limousine pulled through the gates of the mansion, you were incredibly grateful for the thickly tinted windows. Reporters were all over the gate attempting to get a glimpse at the limousine’s rider. Some of them were also trying to get in through the gates with the limousine but were being held back by security guards.

“You know he doubled the amount of security.”

You pulled your eyes away from the scene outside, and they landed on the driver who was looking at you through his rear view window. “I’m sorry?”

“Mr. Kaiba got more security recently. I think he did it because of you.”

Then it hit you. The reporters weren’t the only ones who would want to know who Kaiba’s new wife was. “I’m a big target now, I guess.” You were going to have to be careful going out in public.

“Here we are.” The driver stopped the limousine, got out, and walked around to open the door for you. “Welcome to your new home, Mrs. Kaiba.”

“Thanks.” You were uncertain if you really meant that. You walked up to the double doors, feeling rather intimidated and caught yourself wishing that Kaiba was with you. Then you shook your head at yourself and decided that Mokuba would probably be more comforting to have around. Maybe he was here?

As you walked up the steps, you found the main doors opening, and by the time you reached them, they were fully open and a man was standing there. He bowed.

“Welcome, I am the butler. Shall I have someone show you to your room?”

“Um, yeah sure.” You might as well see your new room. “Hey, is Mokuba here?”

“Young Master Kaiba is still sleeping.” The butler closed the front doors and summoned a maid to come show you around.

‘Lucky him,’ you thought while wishing that you were still sleeping too. You were introduced to a maid whose name you failed to catch, and as she turned to walk away, you followed along behind her wordlessly.

She led you upstairs and to a room with double doors. She opened the doors and stepped aside. You looked past her and into a room that was bigger than your entire apartment combined. The bed was the biggest bed you’d ever seen in your life.

“Here’s your room. Is there anything else you need, Mistress?”

You were startled. While gaping at the room, you’d forgotten about the maid.

“No, it’s ok.” You waited until the maid left the room to begin inspecting it. It was mostly done up in blues and grays. It had a decently sized desk as well as a stereo, but otherwise, it was a simple room despite the size. With so little to look at, you quickly decided that your favorite aspect of the room was the balcony attached to it.

The room had a few different doors, but they were all closed so you couldn't tell where they led. You walked over to one of the doors and opened it. Beyond the door was the largest closet you’d ever seen. The light turned on as the door opened, and you discovered that it was half filled with dresses and other assorted women's clothes while the other half had suits and trench coats. Then your eyes widened as you realized that ‘your’ room might also be Kaiba’s room.

You backed out of the closet quickly and shut the door. You really didn’t want to touch anything else at the moment. Knowing it could be Kaiba's room made you uncomfortable so you left the room. You decided that maybe you’d just give yourself a tour of the mansion.

“Hey!”

You turned and saw Mokuba walking toward you with a huge smile on his face.

“Mokuba!” You grinned and skipped to him. “They told me you were asleep!”

“Nah.” He hugged you. “Seto said you were moving in today so I’ve been waiting for you to show up.” Then Mokuba pulled away and grinned at you. “So I hear you guys are going out on a date tonight.” He winked at you.

Your face felt a little warm. “Yeah, he told you that, too?”

“Of course!” Mokuba linked his arm with yours and began leading you back to ‘your’ room. “So have you decided what to wear?”

You grinned. “Mokuba, it’s not even noon yet, and Kaiba won’t be back until seven.”

“But this it your debut and fashion takes time!”

You rolled your eyes. Mokuba would be the kind of guy to care about fashion.

“Maybe if I look bad he’ll actually give me that annulment I want?”

Mokuba looked completely scandalized. “NO!” He dragged you over to ‘your’ closet, pulled the door open, and yanked you inside. He backed away from you and studied you carefully. Then he began looking through dresses while muttering under his breath. He threw a dress at you suddenly.

“Try that on and then come out,” he commanded before leaving the closet and closing the door.

You looked at the dark green dress that Mokuba had thrown at you and reluctantly began changing.

A few hours and what seemed like a million dresses later, Mokuba had finally decided on a dress. You would have given a sigh of relief, but as soon as he’d decided on the dress, the team of hairdressers, makeup artists, and other assorted people he’d called descended upon you. You were overwhelmed by all the questions being asked at once, and you couldn’t even figure out what they were asking half the time. Gradually the questions stopped as everyone simply started doing whatever they wanted with your face, hair, hands, and feet.

Eventually the team finished their work on you, and you were shoved in front of a mirror by Mokuba. You took in your appearance with wide eyes. You’d never looked quite this good in your life, and yet you were still dressed simply. You were wearing a knee length strapless dress that faded from a white bodice to a teal skirt. The bodice had been adjusted slightly by a seamstress Mokuba had called in so that it fit you perfectly. The skirt of the dress had a built in petticoat so that it fell nicely. Your hair had been pinned back with a few decorative combs and fell in curls. Someone had put a silver choker with a bird pendant around your neck and matching earrings in your ears. Your makeup looked natural with hints of teal on your eyes.

Mokuba held out a pair of dark heels. “It’s a little past seven you know.”

Your eyes widened, and you looked at the clock. It read 7:13. Mokuba had actually spent that much time getting you ready. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and it opened slowly to reveal Kaiba. He stared at you for a moment.

“You look beautiful.”

You blushed and muttered a thank you that he probably couldn’t hear.

He turned to Mokuba. “So I assume that you also picked out something for me?”

Mokuba gestured to a shirt, jacket, and pair of pants that were sitting on the bed. “Of course. Now we'll go wait downstairs. You’d better hurry or I’ll steal her for myself.”

Kaiba smirked. “I can see the newspapers now. Mokuba Kaiba runs off with older brother’s fiancée.”

“Don’t forget the last part, 'and the uncaring Seto Kaiba continues going to work.'”

“Of course. Now get out so I can change before you make headlines.”

Mokuba was laughing as he led you out of the room. You smiled at the banter between the two brothers. They were definitely very close.

You and Mokuba waited for Kaiba at the base of the stairs. When he began to descend, you forgot how to breathe. He was wearing black pants with a white shirt, and he had a black jacket slung over his arm. He was adjusting a teal tie that matched your dress and heels perfectly.

“Mokuba, how are you so amazing?” you asked while still staring at Kaiba.

“I make people look good for a living.”

This got your attention. “What?”

“I’m a photographer. Did you think Seto would support me after I refused to inherit Kaiba Corp? Nu-uh.”

Wow. That was news to you. You had kind of assumed that Mokuba didn’t work.

“Are you ready to go?” Kaiba had reached you and extended his arm out to you. You smiled at him and took his arm.

“Yeah.” The butler opened the door for you both.

“Don’t stay out too late you two!” Mokuba’s teasing voice made you smile.

A limo was waiting for the two of you right outside the steps. Kaiba motioned for you to go in first and followed behind you. Inside the limo it was awkward. Kaiba was sitting close to you and all you could think about was how nice he smelled.

“So tell me about yourself.”

You looked over and into his deep blue eyes. “What do you want to know?” What you really meant was, ‘What about me could possibly be interesting to you?’

“Everything.”

You raised an eyebrow at that response so he expanded on it.

“I know facts about you. Where you went to school, what you studied, past jobs you’ve had. I don’t know anything about your personality.”

“Oh, um.” You searched your mind trying to think of something to say about yourself. “I’m not a morning person.”

He looked like he wanted to laugh. “I won’t wake you up before I leave in the morning then.”

“You’d better not.” You grinned at him. Then you remembered that you’d wanted to ask him why you didn’t have your own room. Before you could ask the limo came to a stop and Kaiba glanced out the window.

“We’re here.”

You looked out the window to see the most expensive and well known restaurant in town. It was frequented by many celebrities and businessmen and as a result there were paparazzi all over the place. Most of them were waiting to see who your limo contained and cameras began flashing as the limo door was opened.

Kaiba stepped out and the paparazzi began yelling questions at him. He ignored them and turned to offer you his hand. You took his hand and breathed in deeply as he helped you step out of the limo and into the flashing lights. Now the paparazzi were really going crazy as you walked with Kaiba up to the restaurant door. You clutched his arm tightly, unsure of what to do and a little bit scared. The walk seemed like miles, but in reality, you both reached the door quickly. Once inside, you were safe from the flashing lights, and you breathed a sigh of relief.

“Do you have to go through this every day?” you asked as a waitress led you both to a table.

“Only when I leave the mansion.” He held out a chair for you.

You looked up at him. He wasn’t joking. You frowned and sat down. Being a celebrity was not something you’d ever dreamed about.

“How do you deal with it?”

Kaiba looked up from his menu. “Deal with what?”

“The cameras, being a sort of celebrity for your entire life.” You studied his face. You’d only been subjected to it for part of a day, and you didn’t know if you’d be able to handle it for an extended period of time. You couldn't imagine this sort of treatment becoming normal.

“I’ve been subjected to it since I was twelve. I simply remind myself that it’s better than the alternatives.”

You frowned. He sounded so mechanical. There was absolutely no emotion in his voice. He was simply expressing a fact. It seemed a bit sad to you, and for some reason, you felt it would be better not to pry, so you opened your menu.

The awkward moment left once Kaiba began asking you questions about your childhood. Over dinner you told him about things that had happened to you when you were younger and about all the funny things you did.

Even though he gave very little information about himself in return, you still felt like you were getting to know him a little better too. At the very least you were getting more comfortable around him.

Of course, that might have been a side effect of the wine, but you didn’t think that you’d had enough for it to really affect you.

The conversation about your past, likes, dislikes, and random facts continued on past dessert and into the limo ride home. When you reached the mansion you were ready to say goodnight to Kaiba when you remembered that you might be sharing a room.

“Are we sharing a room?” you blurted out suddenly. Ok, maybe the wine was affecting you.

Kaiba looked up from taking off his shoes, startled. He had every right to be startled. Five seconds ago you had been deeply involved in a rant about a video game and now you were suddenly asking about the room.

“Of course.” He began walking up the stairs.

You followed him. “Kaiba, I’m not too sure I’m comfortable with that.”

He sighed. “I thought I already asked you to call me Seto.”

“Well, I’m not too comfortable with that either.” Maybe you shouldn’t have had that wine. It was making you too talkative. “Now, about the rooming situation–”

“Don’t worry, I won’t try anything. Now please, let’s go to bed. I’m too tired to argue.”

You weren’t sure what made you give up the argument. Maybe it was that he really did look tired or maybe you were tired too, but you obligingly followed him into your shared bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Incidentally, the date was not Kaiba's idea at all. Mokuba told him to ask the reader out. But as a character, the reader will never know that. I did want to point that out though because Kaiba asking her on his own accord does feel weird.


	4. Chapter 4

You snuggled deeper into your nice soft pillows as you resisted waking up. Somewhere at the edge of your consciousness, you registered that your head hurt, and you tried to ignore that pain and go back to sleep. Your efforts were for nothing. The headache that you had refused to be ignored. You opened your eyes, intent on getting out of bed so you could get some aspirin, and you were immediately grateful that the room wasn’t very bright. The curtains were pulled over the window, keeping most of the light from coming in. As you sat up and looked around, you remembered that you were in Kaiba’s house and had no clue where anything was. You allowed your body to drop back onto the bed with a sigh, but then you noticed something.

Sitting on the nightstand was a glass of water and what looked like it might be a bottle of aspirin. You grinned and crawled over until you were sitting on the edge of the bed. You grabbed the bottle and squinted at the label, trying to figure out how much to take. You took out the correct amount for yourself and downed it with a huge gulp of water.

Then you saw the note that had been underneath the glass of water. Groaning, you picked it up and attempted to read its contents.

_I thought that based on how much you drank last night, you might need an aspirin when you woke up. If you need anything else, use the intercom to ask one of the maids. If you want to go somewhere, please take Mokuba with you. - Seto_

You put the letter down. Now that you knew that this wasn't all some weird dream, you also knew that you needed to seriously start trying to get out of this situation. You knew that Kaiba didn't want you going out because people knew who you were now, but you needed to go see a lawyer, and you doubted that Mokuba would support that plan.

As someone who hadn't had much use for a lawyer before, you didn't really know where to go. You looked around the room, and you were delighted to see that your laptop was sitting on the desk. Slowly, so that you wouldn't agitate your head, you got out of bed... Only to realize that you weren't wearing anything except your underwear.

“That PERVERT!” you shouted, not being able to remember when you'd lost your clothes. You briefly forgot about your laptop as you went straight into the closet, looking for something to wear. There wasn't really that much in your closet yet, and most of it wasn't very casual, so it didn't take you very long to decide on a plain sundress. You hesitated, feeling too dirty to put clean clothes on and decided that the only course of action would be to take a shower. If you could find one.

You carried the dress out of the closet. After glancing around the room, you began to check the various doors attached to it until you finally found the bathroom. You were extra careful to lock the door behind you, even though Kaiba was supposed to be at work, before starting the shower. As the water warmed up, you looked around at the soaps and shampoos, hoping that he had something you could use. You discovered that a lot of your stuff had somehow made it into the bathroom, and you were torn between being happy to see it and uncomfortable with seeing it next to Kaiba's stuff. At least you had something familiar.

After your shower, you felt much better as you changed into the sundress you had picked out. You would have to say something later to Kaiba about undressing you, but for the moment, you needed to find a lawyer. A good one who didn't work for Kaiba. You went straight to your laptop after your hair was somewhat styled and sat at the desk with it. You opened it and found a post-it on the screen. The post-it simply stated, “I connected your computer to our network and added better protection to it.” The post-it wasn't signed, but you knew from the small, precise handwriting that it was Kaiba's. You assumed he'd managed to hack into it to do all of that so it was probably a good thing that he'd given you better protection.

You started up the computer and opened a window for the internet. Then you searched for the Kaiba Corp. lawyers. Once that was done, you opened a new window to search for lawyers in Domino City. You searched for lawyers who worked specifically with divorces and marriage. You found a few who looked promising and none of them were listed on the Kaiba Corp. website. You quickly wrote down the addresses for all of their offices on some post-its stolen from Kaiba's desk. Then you shut down your computer.

You left Kaiba's room and looked around. Fortunately Kaiba's room was at the end of the hallway so you only had the option of going straight rather than having to decide whether to go right or left. You ducked back into the room to quickly search for your wallet and a purse. It didn't take too long, they were exactly where you had left them yesterday. Armed with your stuff, you set off on a search for the main door and maybe the kitchen first if you were lucky.

Fortunately, the floor wasn't very intricate. It was simply a long hallway with a bunch of doors lining it. You found the main stairway quickly and descended down two flights to find the main doors. You approached the doors, and as soon as you began to unlock them, you were approached by a maid.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Kaiba. Are you leaving? Shall I call a driver around?”

You turned, eyes wide open like a deer in the headlights. You really didn't want to be driven around. “Oh, um, no. Actually I was looking for the kitchen.” You smiled at her. You hadn't eaten yet today anyway.

“Follow me. I shall show you there.”

You followed the maid, trying to keep track of the directions, hoping that you'd be able to find the kitchen again. It seemed to be all the way at the edge of the house. Unlike a few nights ago, it was fully lit from the sun outside and a cook was stationed there. She looked up from the newspaper that she was reading and stood up the moment she saw you.

“Well, you're awake! What would you like me to prepare for you?”

You asked her for your favorite breakfast food, hoping it wouldn't be too much of a problem, and apparently, it wasn't. She started preparing it right away. You sat down on one of the stools and thought about a few nights prior when you had ice cream with Mokuba. You felt bad about trying to get out of this marriage because Mokuba was trying so hard to make you feel like family. You felt kind of like you were betraying Mokuba even though you knew that wasn't strictly true.

The cook made your meal as quickly as possible and smiled at you as she served it. Her smile seemed to be more of a curious and inquiring smile than a friendly one, but she refrained from asking you any questions. You nervously ate your food, hyper aware of her and knowing that she was analyzing you. It caused you to eat quicker so you could get out of this awkward position. When you were done, you got up to rinse your plate over in the sink, but the woman waved at you and took the plate from you.

“Um, it's ok. I've got it,” you tried to protest, but she just waved you off.

“This is my job dear. Don't worry about it.”

You stood there somewhat uselessly for a few moments as she rinsed the dishes. Then you noticed the door you had come through with Mokuba the other night. You went straight for it, opened it, and looked out. Yep, it was a side exit, just like you remembered. You walked out, closed the door behind you, and looked around to figure out where you were in relation to the gate. You were fairly sure that you remembered their garage being in the back of the house, but you weren't positive. In fact, you weren't even sure if the guy who was in charge of the gate would actually let you out.

Which of course meant that it was time to break out of the mansion. You wandered over to the garage, thinking about taking one of the cars. However that idea was quickly killed when you realized that the door into the garage was firmly shut and locked. Well, it seemed that you were just going to have to wander around and hope that there would be a spot for you to scale the gate. Not that your dress was the best attire to hop a fence in, but you would manage. Hopefully. Logically though, the Kaiba mansion should be secure enough that you shouldn't be able to get over the fence. You had nothing better to do with your time though, so you began walking away from the mansion. The entire property was fenced so you'd hit a wall eventually.

Sure enough, after less than a mile of wandering, you hit a wall. Literally and figuratively speaking. Now you weren't sure what to do. You had been hoping that you'd be able to find a spot where you could get over the wall. Now that you were looking at the wall itself, you knew that you weren't going to be able to climb the wall. It was much taller than you, and the stone was rather smooth. Ideally, there would be a rock or something next to the wall that you could climb onto before lifting yourself up onto the top of the wall. Perhaps you could find a tree growing really close to the wall...

After looking around at your surroundings, you determined that you were definitely not getting over the wall at this point. You began to walk along the wall, looking around to see if any point of the wall would be easy to jump. You kept an eye out for anything at all that might help you get over the wall. Unfortunately you managed to make it all the way around to the front gate without finding a single way over the wall. Stupid Kaiba and his excellent security.

Your presence at the front gate set off the reporters. The moment they saw you, they raised their cameras and started taking photos. They shouted questions to you, but all the questions blended together into a roar of noise. You tried to cover your face as you made a hasty retreat back toward the mansion. Even if the guards would allow you out, you were not going to be able to get through all those people on foot. Time for Plan B: grand theft auto. You followed the winding road back toward the locked garage. Now you needed to either pick the locks for the garage, break in, or find the key. You decided upon the last option as you didn't really want to break anything and you didn't have a clue how to pick a lock.

You wandered back into the kitchen and came face to face with Mokuba. You were trying to figure out how to disappear, but then it came to you, Mokuba would know where the keys were kept.

“Morning Mokuba!” you greeted, but he didn't even look up from his food. He may have grunted at you, but you weren't quite sure. You grinned, hoping that his half-asleep state would help you get the keys easily. A half asleep Mokuba might not think about why you were asking him for them. At the same time, a half asleep Mokuba also might not know where they were.

“Mokuba, I need to get into the garage. Can you tell me where the keys are?”

No response.

"Um, Mokuba? Garage keys please?”

He simply picked up a hand and waved it at you dismissively. What the heck was that supposed to mean? You were about ready to shake him and wake him up properly when he muttered something.

“Excuse me?”

His head lifted, and he glared at you. It was almost scary. “In my room.” Then he went back to eating his breakfast in his half-asleep state. You didn't even bother with a thank-you, figuring you'd disturbed him enough. You left the kitchen, trying to figure out where the heck Mokuba's room would be. Luckily Kaiba had plenty of maids roaming around.

“Excuse me?” You stopped one of the maids. “Could you tell me where Mokuba's room is please?”

She gave you directions quickly and continued on her way. You repeated them to yourself as you walked along, intent on not forgetting them halfway to the room.

 _Up to the third floor;_ you went for the stairs.

 _Turn right;_ you walked to the right.

 _To the left of Master Kaiba's room_ ; no, wait, which one was that?

Oh right, it was the one you were currently staying in. You glared at the door you had come out of this morning. All of your adventures from the past hour or so felt like a slight waste as you had just returned to where you had been this morning. But then you remembered that you had at least been fed. That was always a plus.

Still married to Kaiba. Still hadn't contacted a lawyer. No longer hungry. Yes, you had at least achieved something. With that in mind, you opened the door to Mokuba's room and began your search for the keys. Where would they be hiding? Your eyes focused on the clothes still lying on the floor. The maid apparently hadn't come in yet, and you dove for his pants. Emptying out the pockets, you found his wallet, the keys, and a wrapped condom? Well, that was awkward. You dropped the condom the moment you recognized it and began going through his wallet to be sure nothing that you would need was in there. You were instantly glad that you had when you found what looked like a card key. Confiscating both the card key and the set of old-fashioned keys, you hightailed it out of the room.

You made it back to the ground floor, thankful that the Kaiba brothers didn't have rooms hidden deep within the mansion. The stairs to the third floor itself happened to be kind of tucked away, but once you knew where to look, they were easy enough to find. You found your way back into the kitchen, ignored a still half-asleep Mokuba, and let yourself back outside. Armed with a set of keys, you tried them all on the door until you eventually found one that fit. Then you found yourself back in the garage. Deciding that you wanted the car with the blacked out windows, you began trying the keys on it one by one.

Sadly, you couldn't find one that fit. That probably meant that it wasn't Mokuba's. You moved on to another one with tinted windows. Again, not Mokuba's. Eventually you came to find that only two cars happened to be Mokuba's in this garage. Now that you'd wasted time searching, you seemed to remember him telling you that earlier, actually. Both of his cars looked flashy, and neither one really appealed to you. You got into the car that he had come to pick you up in and started it up, vaguely noting how quiet the engine was compared to cars you had driven in the past.

You didn't even have time to wonder how to open the garage door. As soon as the car started, it began opening on its own accord. If you hadn't thought that Seto Kaiba was a technophile before, you certainly did now. You put the car into reverse, pulled out of the garage, and drove down the driveway. As you approached the gate, you noticed that it was already opening slightly to let you out, and security guards were keeping the reporters from sneaking in.

'They must have recognized the car and thought that I was Mokuba,' you mused to yourself as you pulled out and onto the streets.

You thought about the address of the lawyer you were planning on talking to. After having lived in Domino for quite a few years already, you knew your way around decently well. A map wasn't needed. You drove straight to the lawyer's office without much trouble outside of the usual traffic. You pulled into parking about a block away from the lawyer's office, picked up coffee at the nearby shop, and made the rest of the trek on foot. People weren't staring or stopping you, which meant that they didn't recognize you yet. This was a benefit that you hadn't expected.

You let yourself into the office and walked up to the secretary. She smiled at you. “Hello! Do you have an appointment?”

“No, but I'm willing to wait all day for an opening.”

She turned to her computer and began typing, presumably checking her boss' schedule for the day. “Well he's in a meeting with someone at the moment, but he might be willing to see you briefly if that ends quickly. I can't guarantee anything, and it would only be for an hour at the most...”

“I'll wait,” you declared seating yourself on a chair. You pulled your phone out of your purse and turned it on, hoping that it had some battery life. It turned on successfully, and your battery was at the fifty-percent-full mark, meaning you had enough power to use it for the day but that you should probably charge it tonight. A few seconds later, your phone started beeping spastically as it suddenly began to receive all the texts and voicemails that you had been sent while it was off.

Your eyes widened as the amount of texts began to grow in number. You'd NEVER gotten this many in a month much less a few days! When you were sure that your phone was done beeping, you opened your inbox and went to the least recent text. It was dated last night and from your best friend. It read: _since when are u w/Kaiba? CALL ME!_

She'd sent you a few more, each getting more and more demanding and eventually threatening to call both your phones. It was safe to assume that at least one of the voicemails was from her. There was another text from a former coworker of yours, a coworker that you knew never liked you, asking if you wanted to go have drinks with her. Then there were a few texts from a few more friends that were about the same as your best friend's texts. ANOTHER text from your best friend demanding to know why your house phone was out of service. More texts from people you barely knew. More texts from your friends.

It was overwhelming to say the least.

You'd just gotten through all of them, as well as the two that you'd received while reading the others, and you were starting to delete them when someone walked out of the building. The secretary started talking on her intercom to her boss, and you crossed your fingers, hoping that he would see you. You fidgeted until the secretary told you that he was willing to see you but only for a short period of time. She showed you into his office, and the lawyer seemed very surprised to see you. He stood and extended his hand.

“Welcome, Mrs. Kaiba! What a pleasant surprise this is! Sit, sit! Would you like some water?”

“Um, no thanks,” you said as you sat down.

He followed suit. “If I may be frank for a moment, what brings you to my office? We are hardly acquainted, and it is my understanding that Mr. Kaiba has his own team of lawyers.”

You smiled at his forwardness and decided to return it by not beating around the bush. “I want an annulment from Mr. Kaiba. I don't want any of his money or property. I really didn't even mean to marry him in the first place.”

He seemed rather confused. You understood exactly why. You would be considered crazy by most standards, you were sure. So you explained how you had come to be in this situation. As your story came to an end, you looked at the lawyer, hoping he might be able to assist you.

“Well, you ARE in quite a situation.” He sighed. “But I can't help you, Mrs. Kaiba. There's not a lawyer on earth who could.” You were upset by this, and it must have showed in your face because he continued, “Look, Mr. Kaiba had every single lawyer in Domino go over that contract. I myself worked a bit on it. It's completely thorough. There is absolutely no way for the woman to get out of it, and if Mr. Kaiba decides to terminate it, there's no way you can stop him. But if you want, I can at least outline the details of it, as I assume you still have yet to actually **read** it.” He looked at you pointedly, and you blushed.

“I meant to,” you mumbled. “But I'd appreciate that. Thank you.”

So he spent the next ten minutes quickly outlining everything that you'd agreed to when you'd signed the contract.

Fortunately, sex was not in the contract at all. Apparently there had been an earlier clause that would have required you to have at least one child with Kaiba, but that could have been considered prostitution, potentially keeping the contract from being legal, and had been taken out. Unfortunately, you were required to stay in Kaiba's mansion.

By the time his secretary informed him that his next appointment was present, you knew what was required of you, and you were thoroughly grateful. You left his office, ready to grab something to eat and head home. You took your phone back out of your purse to check the time and noticed that you had quite a few missed calls from the same numbr. After checking the number and not recognizing it, you dismissed it, figuring they'd probably call back. Then you checked the time. It was nearly five.

You ducked into a small bakery, intent on grabbing something small to eat when your phone went off. You looked. It was that same number so you answered tentatively.

“I'm SO glad I finally got you! WHERE IS MY CAR?!”

Recognizing Mokuba's voice, you made a face and decided that you shouldn't have answered your phone. “Well, right now it's in a parking space. I'm in a bakery if you care about me.”

“You better bring it back in one piece!”

You rolled your eyes. You would never understand men and their car obsession. “Of course I will Mokuba! In fact, I was just about to head back.”

You waited for a response but there was none. You looked at the phone to see that he'd hung up on you. Geez, a temper just like his brother's! You ordered a few cupcakes to go, intending to eat them in front of Mokuba without sharing any. With your box of cupcakes in hand, you wandered back to Mokuba's car, but you almost dropped them when you got close and noticed a very familiar and very tall man leaning against the hood. Shit.

You turned, and your plan was to quietly sneak away, but your plan was thwarted by the woman you ended up bumping into in your haste. She loudly began to berate you for not paying attention, and you hoped to everything that Kaiba wouldn't look, or if he did, that he wouldn't recognize you. As soon as the woman's eyes went wide at someone behind you, you knew that your hopes had been in vain.

Yes, that very low and angry voice growling your name could belong to no one else. You turned to him, a nervous smile on your face. “Well, fancy running into you.” You giggled nervously, and his glare brought the phrase _if looks could kill_ to mind.

“Did you happen to read my note this morning?” His voice was still low. He was angry.

“Note? No... can't think of one!” you lied, hoping it would save your ass.

No such luck. His glare said he knew you were a liar. He didn't even have to open his mouth. New tactic for you: distraction! “So what are you even doing here?”

“Looking for you. My guards told me that you'd taken off in one of Mokuba's cars without him.”

Damn meddling guards. You would remember to bribe them to not say anything next time. “Well I was about to head back to your mansion so you can go back to work now! Sorry for disrupting you.” You tried to step around him and make a break for the car, but you failed once again.

“Give me the keys. I'll be driving you home.”

Oh boy were you definitely in trouble. You pulled out the keys and placed them in his outstretched hand, trying to think of a way to get out of this mess. Then your mind went to the box you were currently balancing. Cupcakes made everyone happy didn't they? As Kaiba helped you into the car, you tried to think of a single time they hadn't made a problem seem better. You couldn't think of one. After Kaiba got into the driver's seat next to you, you opened the box and showed them to him. “Cupcake?”

Kaiba looked down at the box and up at you. “I don't like cupcakes.” He started the car, and you sat in shock. He began to back out of the parking spot.

“HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE CUPCAKES?!”

Your sudden outburst made him brake suddenly, and he looked at you in complete disbelief. “They're too sweet, and unless you would like the car to crash, refrain from yelling while I'm driving.”

His words didn't calm you down. “YOU HAVE NO SOUL!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the songs that I use in this chapter, I actually put all my music on shuffle and used whatever came up. So, no real significance there.

Kaiba had driven you back to his mansion in awkward silence after your little outburst. Well, you had felt awkward. He, on the other hand, had probably been too pissed off at you to even notice the silence. Though you hadn't realized that until you'd both walked into the mansion and he glared at Mokuba, who looked like he was sitting there waiting to yell at you. Mokuba left the room, but not before letting you know that he would talk to you later with a glare of his own. As soon as Mokuba left, Kaiba began to lecture you on your thoughtless behavior.

Well, no, lecture wasn't quite the right word. He hadn't yelled either. His voice had maintained the same low growl.

Of course, he hadn't been entirely concerned with your well-being either. As he had explained, it would be easy for anyone to kidnap you and try to use you to get money from him. Which would be an inconvenience. You'd tried to turn that against him and try to get him to divorce you since you were such an inconvenience, but he'd remained decided on keeping you.

Now you were sitting by the indoor pool, which you had found on accident while storming around his mansion angrily. In fact, you were moderately sure that you were lost, but you figured someone would come looking for you eventually. If they weren't still angry with you.

Not that you _entirely_ blamed Mokuba for being angry with you. You did steal his car, and not with his permission either, even though you fully intended to tell him that he did give you permission while he was half asleep. He wouldn't know the difference anyway. Kaiba, on the other hand, well this was entirely his own fault for insisting that you remain married to him despite your express wishes to **un** marry yourself to him.

You took off your shoes and placed them off to the side before sitting on the edge of the pool and dangling your legs in the water. You'd been sitting there for a while, just staring at the water and spacing out, when Kaiba had appeared. You glared at him as soon as you noticed.

“I was wondering if you wished to have dinner with me again tonight.” You weren't sure if that was a question. It didn't sound like one despite the wording.

“No, thank you.” You were determined to make his life difficult at this point.

He seemed to look behind him. “See Mokuba? She wants to talk to me even less than I want to talk to her!”

You looked on curiously as Mokuba suddenly appeared. “Se-to! What the heck? And you!” Mokuba turned to you. “Why can't you make the best out of this situation?”

It seemed that Mokuba was trying to get (Or would it be keep? This situation was confusing you far too much.) you together with his brother. Well it just wasn't going to work.

“Clearly your brother has even less interest in spending time with me than I do with him. He should be the one to make the best of this situation and divorce me.”

“I'm right here. You don't need to talk about me like I'm not present,” Kaiba interjected. “Besides, you're still far superior to all of my other options.”

“Yeah, thanks,” you mumbled.

“Ugh, you two already need counseling, and it's only been three days!” Mokuba stormed over to the door. “Don't think you're ever going to be able to have sex with her like this, Seto! Despite what you may think, the stork does not bring children!” With that Mokuba left the room, and you went into shock. That boy was awfully blunt.

“Twenty-eight and he still acts like a child.” Kaiba's tone seemed to be more resigned than critical, and you grinned. Despite everything, those two were still very close.

“When is he going back to Tokyo?” You hoped it wouldn't be anytime soon. Being alone with Kaiba was going to be awkward.

“Who knows. He's really quite irresponsible when it comes to his work. I don't know how he ended up as successful as he is.”

Silence fell between the two of you. You had nothing more to say, but he was staring at you like he expected you to say something. It made you uncomfortable so you turned back to the pool that you were currently dangling your feet in.

“You're still attracted to me.” It wasn't a question. It was a statement that Kaiba seemed sure was true. You assumed that he was looking smug, but you weren't sure where that confidence was coming from.

“What made you think I was ever interested in you!?” You glared at him only to find that he was actually looking more annoyed than anything.

“You did, last night when I carried you into our room. You told me about how when you were younger you used to have posters of me and daydream about being carried like that.”

Well, shit. You'd outed yourself as a fangirl. What else had you told him while you'd been tipsy? What else did he know?

He continued almost like he knew what you were thinking, “You also told me that I was still attractive despite my age.” He paused for a second. “I'm not **that** old you know, but that's beside the point. You're still attracted to me, so I don't understand what the problem is with this marriage. Why aren't you accepting it? If you think that pretending to not like it for a while is going to endear you to me then it's not working. I'm more annoyed than anything else.”

“Haven't you ever encountered any women who wouldn't marry you? What makes me different from them?” You were actually quite annoyed that he thought that you were pretending to not like this arrangement.

“I've met less than a handful of women who were uninterested in me. The ones who weren't often had their reasons. One, for example, was already chasing after the only man who could defeat me in a duel[1]. I've also met women who pretended to be uninterested. One example of that being the girl who married Duke Devlin. I believe you might be familiar with her? Her brother is much happier with him than he would have been with me, thankfully. I believe that that fact was the only reason she eventually gave up on me[2].”

He sounded incredibly negative now, and you wondered if that was how he really saw women, as nothing but gold diggers.

“You've been around the wrong types of women. You should let me introduce you to a few better ones.” You made the offer without stopping to think about it. Surely he wouldn't agree, but maybe he would, and you could find a decent girl for him to leave you for.

“I have no time for such things, besides it would be bad for my image if the magazines and newspapers saw me out with a woman other than you.”

“Not if you divorced me first!”

He glared, and you were sure that he was going to tell you to give up on that already, but your cellphone went off, interrupting whatever he had been planning to say. You pulled it out, recognizing the ringtone as your best friend's, and answered it sheepishly.

When she heard your voice, she nearly screeched out your name. "Why haven't you called me back yet?! How are you married to Kaiba?! Why haven't you told me?! How come your house phone is no longer in service?!”

Your eyes widened, and you quickly interrupted her when she paused to breathe. “Slow down Nat! I need time to answer the questions before you give me more.”

“Well hurry up then! I'm dying from curiosity!”

“My house phone is disconnected because I'm now living in the Kaiba Mansion.” Well that was the answer to the easiest question, though it did sound misleading. “I haven't called you back because I've been sorta busy trying to sort out my marriage to Kaiba. I'm trying to get it annulled, and I was hoping that would happen before I had to tell you about it.”

“Get it annulled? Are you crazy?!” Natsume apparently thought being married to Kaiba was fabulous. Great. Was Kaiba right and were you the only sane person in the world?

“Well no, this is all really just a misunderstanding but it's a long story...”

“Come down to the club later and tell me about it,” she suggested, letting you know that she wasn't going to give up until she heard the story.

“Sure, I'll be there around ten.” It would be a good thing to get a night away from Kaiba.

Nat threatened to hunt you down if you didn't show up, and you simply said 'good bye' and hung up on her.

Kaiba had waited very patiently while you had been on the phone with your friend. Too patiently actually... You'd expected him to either leave when you'd picked up the phone or to demand that you hang up on the person. Since he hadn't done either, you were suspicious.

“Who was that and where are you planning on going?” he demanded, which explained why he'd stayed there. You wanted to tell him to bug off and stay out of your business, but you figured that if you were good he would be less likely to throw a fit about you leaving, yet again.

“That was my best friend, and we're getting together at a club later.” Asking him if you could go would probably have been better than saying that you were, but you just couldn't bring yourself to ask permission for something you were going to do whether he liked it or not.

“I'll be going with you.”

“I'm sorry?” Had you misheard him? Why would Seto Kaiba willingly be going to a _club._

“I'm going with you,” he stated again. “You'll need someone to keep an eye on you.”

“No, it's okay.” This would be bad, very bad. Natsume would likely just reinforce his negative ideas about women. “I'll take Mokuba!” You congratulated yourself on that idea.

“We can take Mokuba, too, but I know my brother. He'll just get distracted by girls.” Kaiba raised an eyebrow, challenging you to come up with more excuses, but your brain couldn't think of anything else.

Suddenly an idea came to you. “If you go with me you have to dance with me!” Ha! He'd never agree to that.

He didn't even bat an eyelash. “Fine.”

Great, it backfired.

“Okay fine, I'll go ask Mokuba if he wants to join us.” More like tell Mokuba that he had to come along so it wouldn't seem like a date, but Kaiba didn't need to know that.

 

Unfortunately that plan backfired as well. Oh Mokuba had agreed to go along, you hadn't had to persuade him in the slightest. He was delighted to have a night out and excited about the fact that his brother was going. When it had been time to leave though, you and Mokuba had both agreed that going in the limousine would be lame. Two to one, Kaiba had been outnumbered and the three of you had gone out to the garage where Mokuba had declared that he was going to take his own car, just in case he got lucky.

Which was far too much info for you to handle really, so you'd willingly gotten into the passenger seat of one of Kaiba's cars. Only now it was starting to feel like a date as the two of you pulled into the parking lot. You got out of the car and looked at him awkwardly as you both closed your doors and walked toward the club entrance.

The bouncer knew you so you were able to skip the line and just walk in, and after a quick word, Kaiba was allowed to go with you. You grabbed his hand so he wouldn't get separated from you in the crowd, and you danced your way over to the bar where Natsume was waiting to pounce. The moment she saw you, she shrieked your name and ran over to hug you.

“You're wearing clothes!” she exclaimed as you knew she would when you'd put the jeans on. Normally she was used to you wearing a tiny top and a short skirt or shorts when you went clubbing but not tonight. Kaiba's maid had apparently thrown out all your revealing clothes. You'd tried to blame Kaiba, but he'd feigned innocence so you had simply pulled an old top out and altered it to look like normal club attire. Tight and low cut. Then you'd decided to tame it down a little with jeans. You really didn't need guys coming over to dance with you tonight, and Kaiba would probably kill anyone who tried anyway.

“You normally wear less than this?” Kaiba muttered softly in your ear.

You never got a chance to answer as Nat promptly squealed. “Oh my god, oh my god!”

You facepalmed. Apparently texting Nat to warn her that Kaiba was coming with you had been useless. She was still going to have a fangirl meltdown. But then she dashed past you and Kaiba. You turned to see who she was pouncing on and saw Mokuba's mane of hair.

“Ooooooh, I didn't think she would attack him over Kaiba,” you said to yourself.

Despite the loud music Kaiba had somehow managed to hear you. “Are you still calling me that?”

You looked at him, very confused, not realizing that you'd spoken aloud.

“It's **Seto.** Not Kaiba.”

Oh, you still felt awkward even thinking of calling him Seto. “Ok.”

He wasn't going to let you out of it though. “Say it, say my name.”

Your eyes widened as you tried to search for an out. Natsume was currently busy going gaga over Mokuba, and Mokuba was busy with Natsume and the many women who were falling all over him. Suddenly Kaiba had you pinned to the bar and his body was right up against your own. “Say my name,” he demanded.

You could feel his entire body against your own, and it didn't help your discomfort that one of his hands was placed on the bare skin of your back. Your eyes locked with his own and you suddenly glanced down.

“Seto,” you mumbled, and yeah, saying his name was just as weird as you thought it would be.

Without a word, he was suddenly sitting on the barstool next to you and ordering a drink. It was somewhat frustrating how nonchalant he appeared to be while you were still flustered and flushed. You knew he was probably expecting you to sit next to him, but you felt worked up after having him so close. Kaiba could hang for all you cared, you were going to dance. As you made your way into the crowd of moving bodies you heard Kaiba yelling your name. Doing your best to disappear into the crowd you hoped that maybe if you were annoying enough he'd want to get rid of you.

You threw all thoughts of Kaiba out of your head for the moment as you let the beat control your movements. All too soon you heard the sounds of disgruntled people, and you just knew that Kaiba was pushing his way through the crowd to you. He was probably the only person cocky enough to do so.

You found yourself being spun around to face Kaiba and his angry face. You just grinned at him.

“If you aren't going to dance then get off the floor!” you shouted over the music. Then you shimmied yourself out of his grip and attempted to dance away.

He easily stopped you. “Who said I wasn't going to dance?”

You laughed. “Please, you've probably never danced in your life. I bet you don't even know how.”

“Of course I know how to dance.” He was amused, and you wondered why. “This,” he gestured to the people around him, “barely counts as dancing, but if you insist.”

Suddenly his hands were on your hips, you were pulled against him and he was dancing. You knew exactly why he was so amused, and you caught yourself wondering just how many women he had slept with over the years because he was moving his hips in ways that were making you incredibly hot. You couldn't stand it. He danced so well and it was so unexpected. Pulling away from him you mumbled something about drinking some air and dashed off.

You left through a side door that you knew led into an alley that most people used to smoke. You expected a cloud of smoke to welcome you outside but all that met you was the sound of rain. Instead of clinging to the side of the building to try to stay dry you walked right into the pouring rain. At the moment you were having the meltdown that you probably should have had a few days ago. The cold air and water helped a little but all you could think about was dancing with Kaiba. How was that possible? Since when did he dance? Were you delusional and insane?

You turned as you heard someone coming out. It was Kaiba, of course. “You don't need to follow me everywhere!” you snapped at him.

“I was just wondering if you were ok after you ran out like that.” He was angry, you could tell, but he was staying dry and close to the building.

You just glared at him. You highly doubted that he was really concerned. “Well I'm fine. Go away.”

He met your glare with one of his own. You wished that you were winning, but it was rather hard to glare menacingly like he was while standing in pouring rain. At this point, you were soaking wet and your shirt was clinging to you. You shivered slightly and he noticed.

“You're going to get sick like that.”

You simply shrugged.

He sighed. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Nothing preferably,” you snapped. “I'm not a--hey! What are you doing?”

Kaiba had moved forward into the rain and was advancing on you. Suddenly he grabbed you and threw you over his shoulder.

“No! Put me down! Stop that!” you yelled as he carried you to who knew where. Since it was raining there were very few people out, and none of them even bothered to pay too much attention to you. Not that it mattered. Nobody would stop Seto Kaiba, not even if he did have a protesting woman slung over his shoulder.

He tossed you into his car and walked around to the driver's seat. You pouted, wondering if there'd been something in his drink. “You're acting strange tonight,” you decided out loud.

“Really?” he remarked as he started the car and got the heater running.

“Yes.” He looked at you, eyebrow raised, challenging your statement, so you continued, “First you danced with me and then you carried me over your shoulder to the car. Neither seem like you.”

“You seem so confident that you know me.”

It wad a statement, but you chose to treat it like a question. “Well, somewhat, I mean, everyone knows you. Seto Kaiba, CEO, workaholic, doesn't date or go out.”

“You're correct about one thing, I do hate dancing like that.” He backed his car out of the parking spot. You were shocked that he'd confessed to that.

“Then why did you dance with me?!” It would have saved you a lot of confusion if he hadn't danced with you.

He didn't respond so you decided to forgo the conversation and mess with his radio. You tried to find a decent station and you were delighted when you landed on a song that you loved.

“ _Now hold on to me pretty baby,_ ”[3] you began to sing along, “ _if you wanna fly. I'm gonna melt the fever sugar—_ HEY!” Kaiba had turned the radio off on you. “What gives?” you complained.

“Your singing is terrible.”

You stuck your tongue out at him. “Well you're married to this singing, so there!” Then you turned the radio back on and continued to sing along, “ _It's a chance gonna move, gonna fuck up your ego_.” You made sure to sing directly to Kaiba now, his pained face making it so much more enjoyable.

You reached Kaiba Mansion rather quickly and you suspected that your singing had forced Kaiba into driving faster. Suddenly dancing and singing around his house seemed like a good idea to you and you dashed out of the car and into the house while unlocking your phone. You brought up Spotify and selected a playlist at random. You hit shuffle on everything, not really caring what played as long as you could sing along to it and annoy Kaiba.

Your eyes widened as “Rev. 22:20”[4] started playing out of the little phone speakers. You hit next quickly, that was not a Kaiba appropriate song.

“What are you doing?” Kaiba's suspicious voice startled you and you dropped your phone. You quickly snatched it up while listening to the song it was currently playing. You waved it at him and turned up the volume quickly, deciding that you liked this song.

“ _Woah oh oh I want to run away. You tell me nothing else but lies.[5]_ ”

Kaiba winced. “Why are you singing again?”

You just grinned and kept singing, when suddenly, he lunged for you and your phone. “Mine!” you yelled as you darted away, dodging his sudden attack. You leapt onto his massive bed, and began to bounce on it as you sang, “ _No I am not, turning down my voice, until you understand there is noth—_ eep!” Kaiba had managed to tackle you down on the bed. He easily grabbed your phone, taking it away from you and turning it off.

“You've lost your music privileges. Now go get changed,” he said as he got off of you.

“Um what?” You might have had something more intelligent to say, but Kaiba had suddenly decided to take his shirt off, and your eyes and brain were both firmly concentrated on his chest.

“In case you haven't noticed,” he leaned forward making eye contact and bringing his face uncomfortably close, “you're still in your wet clothes. Now get out of them, unless of course you'd like me to undress you?” He was teasing and serious at the same time, and as he started to unbutton his pants and pull them down, it suddenly came to your notice that his clothes were just as wet as yours. Then you realized that he was taking his pants off. Startled by his forwardness, you covered your eyes with your hands. He laughed, and you wondered if you knew he could do that.

Suddenly there was a pressure on the bed, and your shirt was being tugged upward. Your hands left your face so they could keep your shirt down, and your eyes were faced with a naked Kaiba. You turned red and then sighed in relief as you noticed that his boxers were still on.

“Do I really have to get you out of those wet clothes myself?”

Suddenly you were up, across the room, and in the closet with the door shut tight, acting as a barrier between you and Kaiba. The sound of his laughter echoed behind you.

[1]Why yes, that is a reference to Téa and Yugi. No, I don't believe she would've ended up with Kaiba for any reason. Kaiba's just conceited like that.

[2]Serenity reference! Just because I felt like it. If you're not happy with what I did with her well don't worry. I have no plans to have her (or any of the 'Geek Squad') in this story. Simply reference them on occasion as they are a big part of Kaiba's past.

[3]“Le Disko” by Shiny Toy Guns

[4]By the band Puscifer

[5]“Runaway” by Groove Coverage


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking this chapter is from around 2008 or 2009ish. Maybe even earlier. Oh well. Here's the original author's note:
> 
> Kinda a short chapter but a LOT happens in it. Hope that makes up for it being a little on the short side.

Someone was bouncing on your bed. That was the first thing that came to your mind, and you were not pleased about it. You had been sleeping, and at this point, you were drifting in the black state between sleep and awake. Wanting to fade back into sleep, you whined at whoever it was. 

It didn't help. The bouncing continued, and now it was accompanied by an annoying voice telling you that it was time to wake up. You groaned and pulled yourself into a sitting position and looked around trying to locate the nuisance. Your eyes landed on Mokuba, and you glared at him. He simply grinned at you. Cheeky jerk.

“So you and Seto disappeared last night...” Mokuba winked at you as he sat on your bed. 

You just stared at him. Was he implying what you thought he was? You were sure that he was... So you threw a pillow at him. 

“We didn't do anything if that's what you mean.” 

He obviously didn't believe you. He was grinning despite having been hit by a pillow.

“So am I getting a niece or nephew soon?” 

“You are not. The stork doesn't bring children remember?” You were pouting at this point. Stupid Mokuba and his assumptions. You weren't doing anything of the sort with his brother and never would.

Not that it wasn't a little bit appealing. He was a very attractive man.

You stopped your train of thought. You were not going to sleep with your husband. It was exactly what he wanted, and you were determined to not give him _anything_ he wanted. 

Although he was probably very good in bed.

No! You weren't going to think about that. A cold shower was in order.

So you glared at Mokuba, kicked him out of your room, and prepared for the day ahead. Though it was kind of hard to get ready when you didn't actually know what you were going to do. In fact, you hadn't really done anything much for the past few days. You knew that there were women out there who would envy the fact that you no longer really had to do anything, but you didn't like it. Sitting around a giant mansion by yourself all day was not appealing. You needed to have something to do or you would go crazy. 

Even a bit of work would be appreciated, but trying to find work was exactly how you found yourself in this situation. Then an idea came to you, and you knew what you were going to do today. That helped you get dressed much faster, and you soon found yourself eating breakfast in the kitchen. Well, it was almost noon, so your breakfast was more like lunch.

Mokuba had already eaten, and you could hear him playing video games somewhere nearby. It sounded like he was losing too. So after you finished your sandwich, you followed the sound of his cursing and easily found him. Sitting down on the couch next to him, you waited until he died before getting his attention. 

“So Mokuba, wanna let me borrow your car again?”

“No.”

You expected that and had a backup plan. “Wanna give me the keys for one of your brother's cars?”

“No.”

You glared. “Then how am I supposed to get anywhere?”

Mokuba thought for a second. “Well where do you want to go?”

“Can I go visit your brother at work?”

Mokuba started laughing. Apparently something about that was amusing to him. You waited patiently for him to respond.

“You could, but I doubt he'd like it,” Mokuba finally shared.

You grinned. Perfect. “I'd still like to go see him.”

Mokuba shook his head. He probably thought you were insane. “I'll give you a ride there then, and you can take the limo back.Tell Seto he should probably get you a car.”

  


Part one of your plan was complete! You had managed to make it to Kaiba Corp. Now you were at the entrance looking around. You knew exactly how to get to Kaiba's office the typical way, but you wanted to try something out. You snuck past the security guard at the elevators and stared at one elevator specifically. Instead of up or down buttons this elevator had slot to swipe a card in. After fishing the card that you'd stolen from Mokuba yesterday out of your pocket, you quickly swiped it. 

You paused and waited. The elevator beeped, and it sounded like a good beep. Then the doors opened. Victory was yours! You danced into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. You were still grinning when the doors opened right into Seto Kaiba's office. Nice. You even get to skip the secretary. 

You left the elevator and felt your grin get even wider when you noted Kaiba's surprised expression. 

“Mokuba?” he inquired.

“Yes, though not intentionally.” You grinned. Kaiba looked perplexed, and it looked good on him so you decided not to elaborate.

“Well? Why are you here?” he demanded.

He was straight to the point as always. “I want a job.”

A pause. Was he considering it? You hoped so. 

“Why?”

He was actually considering it! Yes! “Because I need something to do. I can't sit around your mansion all day.”

“I don't have a job for you.”

No! How could he not have a job open? His company was HUGE! 

“Please? I'm qualified as a graphic designer. Nobody could say you were just hiring me because I'm your wife.”

“Look, I'd like to hire you, but I really can't right now—”

“Here, I'll show you what I can do,” you interrupted. You were not going to take 'no' for an answer. Nobody else was going to hire Seto Kaiba's wife. You walked around to his side of the desk and began looking through his drawers for paper and a pencil. 

“What are you doing?” He sounded annoyed. You would be too in his situation, but you really wanted a job, and you were willing to be pushy about it.

“Look!” You waved a pencil around before you began to sketch. At this point, you were standing right next to him, and you talked as you sketched. “I can draw really well. I can also operate graphics software and program animation. I've got a wide variety of skills.” You held up the picture that you'd sketched. It was a basic character design that you'd just come up with.

He said nothing so you kept going. 

“If you want I can add in a background,” you suggested. 

“No, I understand that you're skilled but I really don't have anything open.”

You pouted until last night came into your mind. You had a theory about last night, and now was a good time to test it. You eyed the chair that he was sitting in and decided that it looked sturdy enough for your plan. So you promptly sat down on your husband's lap. You felt his entire body stiffen.

“What are you doing?”

You looked up to see him glaring at you. Oh, that was bad, but you'd already put the plan into action so you couldn't back out now. 

“You know, if I worked here we'd see each other every day.” You grinned at him. The glare was gone. That was good. He even seemed to be thinking about what you were saying.

“I really don't have anything for you to do.” His voice was strained, and you were fairly sure that it meant that you were about to get your way.

“Nothing?” You pouted. “Oh well.” You got off his lap and started to leave, but his hand shot out to grab your own.

“We're starting work on a new videogame soon. Would you like to work on the concept art?” His voice sounded strained and little husky. Sitting on his lap HAD gotten to him.

You grinned, victorious. “I KNEW there was something you could have me do!”

He glared. “Well, the leader of this project asked me to put another artist in charge of the graphics, but I hadn't planned on doing so. If he likes your concept art then I'll put you in charge instead.”

“Thank you!” You gave him a light kiss on the cheek. 

Kaiba stood and suddenly he was kissing your mouth. One of his hands was in your hair, holding your mouth to his, and another was around your waist. His kiss was pure dominance, and you felt your knees turn into jelly. You instinctively kissed him back.

He pulled out of the kiss but didn't move away from you. “Next time you want something, don't try to seduce me again to get it. You won't like the consequences.”

You weren't sure if that was true or not. You had admittedly very much liked that kiss.

“Now go home. I'll have all the information about the game ready for you tomorrow.” He was already sitting back down in his chair.

Oh yes, the concept art. You had something to do. You turned to go but then you stopped. “Hey, um, Seto?”

He looked back up from his work, and you could tell he was feeling pleased with himself. He raised an eyebrow and you figured that was his way of telling you to continue.

“I don't know where your maids put any of my art supplies.”

He pulled out his wallet and held out a card for you to take. “Buy new supplies. Whatever you want.”

Oooooh, that was exciting! “One more thing... How do I get there?”

“Take the limo.”

You frowned. “I really don't want to take a limousine everywhere.”

He sighed and pulled out a set of keys. He picked one, took it off the ring, and gave it to you. “You can use this car until we buy you one.”

You were amused. “You keep the keys to all your cars on you?”

“Only when Mokuba is home. I prefer that he take his own cars out on joyrides.”

You laughed. So neither of the Kaiba men liked to share their cars? It was such a normal guy trait that you enjoyed it. You'd never understand, but it amused you.

“I'll call the limo around to take you home.”

You took that as a 'get out so I can work' and grinned at him. You swiped your stolen key card and the elevator beeped and opened. 

  


Once you got back to the Kaiba mansion, you found yourself in the garage with a problem. Which car had he given you the key for?

Luckily Mokuba came bouncing into the garage. “So he gave you one of his cars? Which one?!” You gave him the key, smiling at his excitement, but he suddenly frowned.

“He gave you his boring car, geez.”

“Um, Mokuba?" He wasn't making a move to show you which car the key belonged to, and they all seemed pretty normal to you. "Still don't know which one that is.”

He showed you which car it was and gave you back the key. “You know, you really should be angry at him for this. He should've given you the Porsche or Ferrari at LEAST.”

“Yeah, I'll be sure to pass that message along.” You rolled your eyes. Like you even knew the difference. You got into the car and started the engine. The lovely purr was lost on you as you pulled out of the garage and started driving toward your favorite art supply store. You had lots of shopping to do.

Once you were in the store you breathed in deeply. The owner spotted you and came over to say hello. You greeted her back with a hug before grabbing a basket.

“I haven't seen you around for a while.” She followed you, trying to catch up as you shopped.

“Yeah, I didn't have a job or money, but I've got one now, and I don't know where any of my stuff is so I need to replace it all.”

She frowned. "It's not like you to lose all your supplies.”

“Oh well I moved recently... you know how that is.” You decided not to tell her exactly how you'd lost them. Knowing Mrs. Utada, she probably wasn't paying attention to the news and didn't know you were married.

“Yes, a move can be a hassle...” Then you heard someone else coming into the store and she excused herself to go welcome the other customer.

In the end, you managed to spend a small fortune replacing all your art supplies. The cashier's eyes briefly widened as she noticed the name on the card you gave her and she looked at you with recognition, but she didn't say anything or make a scene, which you were very grateful for.

You put your bags into the car and wandered over to the nearest coffeehouse. It was cool outside and you felt like getting something hot to drink. As you were waiting in line, your cell phone went off. You looked at the number but didn't recognize it so you hesitantly picked up.

“Where are you?” Oh it was Kaiba. Which reminded you that you didn't have his cell phone number. You really needed to get that.

“Are you calling from your cell?” 

Your question must have caught him by surprise because it took him a moment to respond. “Yes. Now where are you?”

You'd have to make sure to put it into your phone then. “I'm at a coffeehouse. Do you want me to pick you up anything?” You were almost at the front of the line though so if he wanted something he'd have to tell you fast.

“I'll have a hazelnut coffee.”

“Okay. I'll see you at home soon then!”

You hung up and programmed his number into your cell. You grinned, wondering just how many people actually had Seto Kaiba's personal number. 

Then you realized it was finally your turn to order. You ordered both drinks, yours and his, and waited for them to be prepared. After paying for and receiving both drinks you took off, wanting to get his to the mansion before it got cold.

Once you were back at the mansion, you grabbed both drinks. You planned to bring them in first and then come back for your supplies. Nobody was in the kitchen so you put the drinks on the counter and went back for your bags. 

When you came back into the kitchen with your bags you were startled to find Kaiba in there drinking his coffee.

“How'd you know which one was yours?”

He eyed you speculatively. “That one was half empty and this one is marked.”

“Oh.” You were silly.

He moved forward and you were suddenly nervous, but he simply took your bags from you and placed them on the counter.

“I'll have someone bring them up for you.”

“No, that's ok,” you tried to protest, but he wouldn't let you. He simply passed you your drink and left the kitchen sipping his own. You followed behind him. “Hey, do you have the information that I'll need for the concept art?”

He kept walking. “I do.”

You were still following and expecting him to respond with details, but you were disappointed as that seemed to be all he was going to say. 

“Well, are you going to give it to me?”

He stopped and turned to smirk at you. “You might have to make me.”

Oh dear, you were fairly sure your heart stopped at the double meaning in that sentence. You stayed frozen in place for a second as you watched your husband make his way up the stairs. If your suspicions hadn't been confirmed earlier in his office they were confirmed now. Your husband was indeed a man, and he thought about sex just as much as all men.

But what were you going to do about that? Even if you two did anything it would be pure lust with no emotions attached, and you didn't like the idea of that. Your husband was attractive, that much was undeniable, but you didn't really feel anything for him. Nor did you believe that he felt anything for you. You sighed. You really didn't want to think about it right now anyway.

You ran up the stairs after him. When you caught up with him he was entering your bedroom. “Does that mean I'm going to have to try to hack your computer? Because I don't think I can.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got about 27 chapters for this but the early chapters are very old so I'm trying to edit them before posting. Hopefully I'm catching everything. 
> 
> Here's the original author's note:  
> Woo! New chapter!  
> The ending is a little bit different than what I've done with other chapters. Hopefully you guys will all enjoy it.  
> As a side note, if anyone notices anywhere where I'm missing spaces (like between two words) let me know! I uploaded it as a HTML document this time and it always does funky things when I do that. I _think_ I've fixed them all though.

The next day found you at the Kaiba's outdoor pool with a sketchbook and some pencils. The papers with the information about the video game were tucked into your sketchbook. You'd already read over the general game premise. Since the game was still in the pre-production phase there wasn't too much to go by. Just the outline of the plot and a general idea of who the main characters were. 

It seemed that this game was going to give the characters attributes rather than let them be all-purpose characters. The main character was a warrior and his sidekick was a thief. Which just sucked for them. In your opinion, any decent party needed a strong mage. Luckily they were going to be joined by a 'forest dweller' which was apparently, “A race of creatures that lived in the forest and could control the elements.” Unfortunately for you, the description said nothing about whether or not they were humanoid in appearance. 

Creating a design for these 'forest dwellers' was a must. It would show off your designing and creativity. You decided that you would draw both a male and female for the race. You doodled a little, toying with various animals, humans with claws, or humans with plant-like attributes before you began doodling a dragon. 

But no, you stopped yourself before you had more than an outline. Dragons weren't normally found in forests. Dragons in forests would have to be dragons with no wings, and you liked the wings. Somehow thinking about dragon wings led to thoughts about fairies, and then thoughts of the fae. Fae were forest dwellers and strong mages, but they were too human in appearance. Nothing interesting about them... well except that they could be sparkly and tall. 

But then you were suddenly sketching an idea. You decidedly liked the idea of a person with an elongated body and limbs. You gave them arms fading into claws despite how typical it was. They needed claws. Your forest dwellers weren't going to be peaceful vegetarian mages. Oh no, they were going to be violent and aggressive creatures. You gave your female forest dweller a grin that showed off her fangs while the male simply looked bored. As a finishing touch, they both received scaled skin, making them seem reptilian in nature.

Looking at the finished result, you grinned. Somehow your fae and dragons had merged and had a baby. Even though your creations had human bodies (rather tall human bodies but human nonetheless), their scales, fangs, and claws gave them a reptilian feel. You toyed a bit with giving either the male or female small useless wings and then decided it would be too much. 

You redrew both designs on a new piece of paper and added in detail commentary. Then you colored them in. Green hues for the male's skin and brown hues for the female's skin. 

Happy with your finished results, you began work on designing the main character. He was much easier now that you were in your creative place. You were on such a roll with all your designs that you hardly noticed as the day flew by. Eventually the sun began to set, taking all of the light you'd been working in away with it. It didn't bother you because you were almost done with your last example: the town that the entire story was supposed to begin in. 

After collecting your stuff, you carried it all back inside the mansion. As you wandered around, you wondered if Kaiba was home from work yet. It was fairly late and he'd been home before dark ever since you'd come to live with him. Finally you ran into Mokuba, but before you could ask him where his brother was, he informed you that it was time for dinner. 

“Oh, ok.” You figured that meant Kaiba was somewhere around and looking for you as well. “Let me just go put my stuff away, and I'll meet you in the dining room?”

“Nah, I don't want to eat in the dining room today. Want to eat on the balcony?” he asked.

“The one attached to your brother's room?” You wondered if there were any other balconies. Surely in a mansion this big there had to be a few more. 

“Yep! That one has a nice table on it, but Seto never uses it. I'll go tell the servants to bring the food up there, and I'll meet you in the room.” He grinned and took off for the kitchen. 

You carted your stuff up to your shared room, wondering if it would have saved you time to just take your stuff there in the first place. This mansion was far too big to walk around carrying stuff. Really you didn't know how the Kaiba brothers could stand to live in this large place. 

Then you recalled that Mokuba didn't even live here anymore. He lived in Tokyo. So really it wasn't the Kaiba brothers living here but just Seto Kaiba, all alone. 

Well no, you corrected yourself yet again. He wasn't alone anymore. He had you now, but that was an uncomfortable thought so you pushed it away. 

You let yourself into your room and looked around trying to find somewhere to put your stuff. This room was supposed to be yours now too, but you were hesitant to actually _use_ the room and unpack any of your stuff. You didn't want to move into Kaiba's space any more than you already had. 

Looking over to your bags of art supplies, you wondered if he would be willing to give you a room to use as a studio. It would be nice to have a space to work in that was just yours. You made a mental note to ask about it later and put your sketchbook and pencils in the pile of art supplies.

Then you opened the balcony doors and inspected the round table sitting on it. It was clean despite sitting outside and being rarely used. Or at least you thought it was rarely used. Seto Kaiba didn't seem like the type of man to sit outside and leisurely drink coffee, and Mokuba had said that Seto didn't use it.

Then you noticed that there were only two chairs. 'Wouldn't another chair be necessary and isn't the table a little small for three people?' you wondered. 

Oh, you really hoped that Mokuba wasn't going to ditch dinner and leave you alone with Kaiba.

Your thoughts about Mokuba being a little conniving jerk were interrupted as the subject of your thoughts entered the room. You were startled and a bit ashamed. Perhaps you'd been thinking the worst of this situation.

Mokuba grinned and joined you on the balcony. “Isn't this a nice place to have dinner?”

“Yes but...” You had no idea what was going on now. “Isn't the table a little small for three people?”

Mokuba laughed. “Sorry, I forgot to tell you that Seto called didn't I?” You nodded signaling for him to continue. 

“Well he's not going to be home until late tonight. Something about idiots not being able to do their jobs. It'll just be the two of us for dinner.” Mokuba shrugged.

Your mouth made an 'O'. _That_ explained everything. 

“Well then, shall we sit?” you asked.

  


After dinner, Mokuba quickly excused himself when his cell went off. The servants quickly cleared the plates and you found yourself alone again. You decided to finish the last of your work for the game. If all went well, you could bring it in tomorrow and have Kaiba show it to the project leader. You drew the town, taking as much paper for the details as you felt you needed. You already had a skeleton outline from earlier so finishing it didn't take you too long. Probably a few hours.

You glanced at a clock to check the time. It was 11pm. That reminded you that there was still no sign of Kaiba. Perhaps Mokuba was wrong, and he would be sleeping in his office instead of coming back. You changed into your pajamas wondering why you felt so reluctant about going to bed alone. You'd been going to bed alone for _years_ before this week. In fact you'd mostly been going to bed alone this week as well. After the first night, you'd waited until Kaiba was involved with work on his laptop before going to bed. You assumed that he joined you later on, but by the time you woke up he was always already off to work. 

But still, he was always in the room when you'd gone to bed. Over at his desk with the lullaby of his fingers moving over the keyboard to soothe you. 

Shaking your head clear of those thoughts, you crawled under your covers. You couldn't possibly be missing his typing! That was ridiculous. You'd only been here for four days, and you were sure it took more time than that to get used to things. You moved around a little, trying to find a comfortable position. 

However finding a comfortable position meant nothing. Once you'd found one you still felt wide awake. The room was too quiet, too dark, and it was eerie. You scolded yourself for being ridiculous about it but that didn't stop the empty room from making you nervous.

Looking around, you decided that it was because the room was so **massive**. Sure you'd gone to sleep in an empty room for most of your life, but they were never this big. They were all small and cozy and decorated with your stuff. This room was large and spacious and mostly impersonal.

You gave up the idea of sleeping for a while and turned on a lamp so you could look for your laptop. You found it quickly and turned it on to check the battery. It was fully charged so you took it outside to the table on the balcony. It was a nice night outside, and the balcony was much smaller than the bedroom. You'd almost considered the closet instead but the closet would probably have been stuffy. 

Looking around you made sure that the balcony was safe. It was on the third floor and the mansion and the grounds around it were guarded, but you were a little on the paranoid side. You noted that there were no trees near it, and as far as you could tell, climbing to this balcony would be impossible. Content, you sat at the table and opened up a window for the internet. Perhaps some nighttime reading was in order. You quickly found something long and engaging and became completely enraptured with the story. 

You almost didn't notice when the door to your bedroom opened, and Kaiba walked in. Your attention went straight to him. He looked so exhausted and weary! Your eyes flickered over to the clock. It was nearly 4am! That was ridiculous! Surely there wasn't anything that needed to be done so much that he didn't have time for more than an hour or so of sleep. 

You bookmarked the point in the story that you were at and shut down your computer. Then you walked over to Kaiba who was lying down on the bed completely clothed.

“You should at least change into something more comfortable,” you said, wondering if perhaps he was already asleep. 

His eyes opened, and he glared at you. “What are you doing still awake?”

Oh, that was a hard question. Why were you still awake?

“This room is big and scary in the dark.” You kicked yourself. Wasn't that a stupid answer, and wait, was Kaiba chuckling? That was almost scarier than the room and a little embarrassing. You really shouldn't have told him that his room was scary. 

“Do you need me to protect you from the monsters?” he taunted. That jerk. 

“Don't you have to get up in a few hours?” you countered, knowing that it was a weak counter. 

The glare was back. “Well my wife has decided that she'd rather talk to me than let me get a few hours of sleep.” 

Well you **had** been trying to get him to change into something more comfortable. He could just sleep uncomfortably for all you cared now. You sat on the side of the bed furthest from where he was and dove under the covers.

“Oh don't sulk,” Kaiba muttered before sighing. “Fine, I'll get comfortable.”

You grinned but stayed facing away from him. He didn't need to know how pleased you were. Then he sarcastically asked if you wanted to check and make sure he'd done as you commanded. You faced him with a glare, but your glare dropped off your face as soon as you realized he wasn't wearing anything but his boxers. A long silence hung between the two of you until you noticed his smug expression. 

“Do you enjoy parading around almost naked?” you snapped at him.

He smirked. “No, I'd rather be completely naked.”

You groaned. Why did you lose verbal battles with him so often? It didn't help that he was constantly unnerving you. Trying to seduce you should be against the rules. You turned away from him again, and when you felt him sit on the other side of the bed, you scooted as far to the edge and away from him as you could. Since when did he only sleep in boxers?

“Now how am I supposed to protect you from the monsters if you're so far away from me?”

“You aren't,” you mumbled and then squeaked as you felt arms pull you into a body. You tried to pull away from him. “Causing sexual tension is not—OOPH!” He'd stopped trying to keep you in place and you'd fallen off the bed. 

“I knew you weren't immune to me.” You couldn't see his face from your spot on the floor but his voice was smug enough. You rubbed the hip that you'd landed on and wondered if sleeping on the floor was a viable option at this point. The carpet was nice and fluffy, and you could always sneak off to one of the surrounding rooms later. They all had beds you were sure.

In fact, you wondered why you were stuck sharing a bed with Kaiba. From what little you'd learned about the man in the past few days, he seemed like a private kind of person. Not the kind of man to share his bed with any woman. 

You poked your head up and leaned on the bed with your arms, Kaiba was smirking like the cat that ate the canary. So smug. Perhaps he had invited other women to his bed? After all, he had to get that ego about his body from somewhere.

“How much did you sleep around?” you asked knowing that it was a bit rude and not caring. In theory nothing was too rude between spouses. 

“Excuse me?!” His smirk was gone, replaced by shock and suddenly you were the one smirking. 

“I was just curious how many other women you've seduced in here. Don't worry about it making me mad or anything. It's not like I'll do anything with you anyway. I was just curious about how much experience you've had.”

His face turned wary but you weren't sure why. Was he wary about why you were asking or wary because of the answer?

“Well what have you heard from the tabloids?”

That was such an annoying non-answer. “C'mon! I'm not stupid! Tabloids aren't reliable!”

“Why bother asking about it then?”

Well, true, you weren't a gossip and you didn't care about his past life... no, that was a lie. You did care. You were curious about his past affairs because it might give you a bit more of an idea of your own standing with him. 

“I just don't know what I'm doing here.”

His eyebrow went up. “You appear to be sitting on my floor.”

“You know what I mean, Mr. Kaiba!” You glared at him. 

“What you're really doing is keeping me from sleeping. If not for you I'd be asleep already. Get back in bed and I'll turn off the lights.”

Well wasn't he suddenly testy. You almost rebelled against his demands, but you remembered that he was getting less than a handful of hours to sleep. Those rumors about him being able to work himself to death were certainly true. He needed to be distracted a little.

“First you turn off the lights.” You smiled innocently at him. 

“Fine.” He pulled a remote off the bedside table and turned out all the lights. The room was sent into darkness with only a bit of moonlight coming in through the windows. You got back into bed before he could complain or demand again. Then you surprised him by wrapping your arm around his bare torso and cuddling up to his side. All you felt were bones and lean muscle but he was warm and surprisingly comfortable despite that.

He seemed confused by your actions. At first he stayed completely still as if he wasn't sure how to respond. Then his body adjusted, and you felt one of his arms settle around your waist. There was silence then and you almost thought that he'd gone to sleep. You listened to his chest, waiting as his breathing evened out bit by bit. You wouldn't be convinced he was asleep until his chest moved at a deep even pace, only then did you allow yourself to look up at his face.

His eyes were closed, and his face was relaxed. After all those years of running a company, you didn't even think that his facial muscles could do that anymore, but they could. Even if you were only a girl who was there to give his company the appearance of being more secure, you decided that you wanted to see him look relaxed like this more often.

Maybe all you were was a minor character in his life, an acrobat to perform tricks for the circus of a company that he ran. Maybe that's all you were, but somehow he was becoming a major character in your life. You blamed being practically trapped in his mansion and your stupidity at signing contracts for that. 

But there in the dark, you knew that you were ready to let him take a bigger part in your life, even if your part in his stayed small.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping to make updating this a weekly thing. Since I have more time over the weekends, I'm going to try to get a chapter out each weekend. I know I'm close to done with this fic, but because it is one of the more popular fics, I want to get back into the swing of writing before I really work on the ending for this. 
> 
> Thanks so much for the support as I slowly work on posting this! :)

You were slowly waking up. Your eyes were still closed and too heavy to open, but there was a problem. Something was forcing you to wake up while you were still sleepy. 

Warm. You felt warm. Too warm. Something was wrapped around you, but you were too lazy to open your eyes to see what it was. Logic said that you were probably wrapped in too many blankets. You tried kicking them off with the least amount of movement, but you were too ensnared by them. 

Giving up on sleep, you opened your eyes. Light was the first thing you noticed. The curtains for the patio window were open, and you cursed whoever had opened them. 

You wiggled out from beneath the covers and sat up looking for a clock. There it was. Then your eyes widened. It was two in the afternoon! How had you slept in so late? Well no, you knew how. You went to sleep so late last night that you really hadn't slept for very long at this point. 

You wondered where Kaiba was... Probably at work, but only God knew how he managed to get up and get there. He seemed fairly exhausted last night. 

Work! You still needed to give your designs to Kaiba! You'd finished them last night hoping that you could give them over to Kaiba today. You still could. Even if you had planned on going down to Kaiba Corp. earlier in the day, Kaiba didn't know that, and you didn't have an appointment or anything. Plus, it wasn't like you had anything better to do today. 

You stretched and rolled out of bed while thinking about what you wanted to wear. You weren't actually going in for an interview so you could probably wear something a bit more comfortable. You wandered into the bathroom, unplugged your cellphone, and turned it on. The screen flickered on, and your eyes widened as you realized it was a Saturday! 

Jeez, you'd figured out by now that Kaiba was a bit of a workaholic, but going in on a Saturday, and EARLY no less, was a foreign concept to you. But now that you were thinking about it, he probably worked all day on Sundays as well. The slightly premature wrinkles that you noticed when you first met him were starting to make sense. It was a wonder that he'd managed to live this long on his schedule. You wanted to have a discussion with him about his crazy work ethic, but you knew that it was unlikely that he'd listen to you, and there was no way he would actually change it even if he did listen. 

In light of what day of the week it was, you wondered if you actually wanted to go down to Kaiba Corp. and drop off your portfolio. Then again, you admittedly had nothing better to do at the moment anyway. Afterward, maybe you could convince Mokuba to go out somewhere fun with you. 

But that was only if Mokuba was actually awake when you came back. You grinned, thinking about how the two Kaiba brothers were such opposites. 

You took your time getting ready, knowing that there was no reason for you to rush. You didn't have a job yet after all. When you finally had to decide what to wear, you didn't know what to do. Most of the clothes in your closet were gifts from Kaiba, so you had plenty of professional stuff in your wardrobe now, but you didn't think you should wear the professional attire. This wasn't an interview with anyone. You were just turning in your portfolio to Kaiba. 

Then again, there was always the chance that you would be able to meet the person you would hopefully be working under in the near future. Kaiba's insane work ethic might be followed by some of his employees. You began to go through the closet, looking for something professional. Finally you found clothes that you liked. You changed into them and then grabbed your portfolio and keys. 

Once you'd made it to Kaiba Corp, you faced the daunting task of searching for parking. Since you hadn't actually driven to Kaiba Corp. before, you didn't really know where to park. You were sure that there had to be a parking structure somewhere for employees, and that would be your best bet since all the street parking was full and you didn't feel like driving in circles around downtown Domino before parking miles away from the building. 

You found the Kaiba Corp parking structure and just pulled into the first available spot. Luckily it happened to be the 'Reserved for CEO' spot. You wondered why Kaiba had his own spot. Did he on rare occasions actually drive himself to work? You scoffed at the idea and got out of the car. 

Hopefully you didn't have to do anything to show that this was Kaiba's car. After all, getting his car towed would definitely make him angry. Then again, you were sure he could deal with it if it did get towed. So you dismissed the idea of Kaiba's car being towed and looked around for the entrance to the building. 

You ended up having to take an elevator to the inside entrance of the Kaiba Corp. building. This was fortunate as there were still reporters wandering around outside the building. However you didn't know how to access Kaiba's personal elevator from this point. So you were going to have to go through security and use one of the main elevators. You dug out your ID hoping that the security would let you through without causing any problems. 

Your wishes went unanswered. The security guy who stopped you was unimpressed by your ID. He demanded that you show him your employee card and told you to get lost if you didn't have one. Before he could get too loud or decide to escort you from the building, you calmly tried to explain to him that you were Seto Kaiba's wife. 

“Yeah, you and every other girl who has wanted to see him since he got married. 'Sides, if you're his wife why isn't Kaiba the surname on your ID?” 

You groaned. Stupid, crazy fangirls ruining the world for everyone else. You dug through your purse and pulled out your cell phone. You dialed the number for Kaiba's personal cell, glad that you had it now, and waited for him to pick up. 

“Kaiba.” 

You skipped telling him that it was you. Knowing him, he had caller ID and would think it was a waste of time. Instead you got straight to the point. “The security at your office won't let me up.” 

“I'll handle it.” 

You would have thanked him, but he'd already hung up on you. The guard was already looking uneasy so you smirked at him. A moment later, his communicator went off. You grinned as he answered it, and you could hear, very faintly, Seto Kaiba yelling at him through the speaker. 

Instead of waiting for Kaiba to stop yelling or for the guard to motion you through, you simply stepped to the side and past the guard. He was smart enough to realize that detaining you further would mean death. 

By now you were receiving a bit of attention as people began to suspect who you were. This had the benefit of nobody wanting to be in an elevator with you. Your temperament was, as yet, unknown to them and nobody wanted to get fired today. Unfortunately the people on other floors didn't get the memo, so you still had to put up with people getting on and off the elevator. This caused your climb to the top to be rather slow, but eventually you reached the top floor, and not even bothering with the secretary, went into Kaiba's office. 

“Hey, here's my character designs for the game.” You dropped the folder onto his desk. 

“Good, I'll send them down.” He scribbled something down on a post-it and stuck it onto your folder. Then he called his secretary in and held out the folder, telling her to take it down to the head of game development. 

He went back to work as soon as the secretary left, and you stood there for a moment in silence. Obviously he expected you to leave, but you had a question for him. 

“Do you work on Sundays?” 

He looked up and raised an eyebrow. Apparently he thought your question was stupid, which meant the answer was probably yes. You frowned. 

“Nevermind then.” You turned and left. Time to go back to the mansion and wake up Mokuba. 

\-----

Kaiba's car was still in the parking spot where you left it so you managed to get back to the Kaiba Mansion with no problems. 

There you looked for Mokuba, hoping he hadn't left already. You passed a few maids and asked them about the younger Kaiba. Both of them said that they hadn't seen him and that he might still be asleep. They kindly directed you to his room, and just like they'd said, he was still asleep. Well that wouldn't do. 

So you jumped on his bed and whacked him with a pillow. 

“OH SHIT!” he yelled, sitting up abruptly. He looked around as if expecting an attack before his eyes narrowed at you. “What the fuck?!" 

“I'd say good morning, but it's the afternoon,” you teased. “Time to wake up and go out with me!” 

“Ugh, you suck.” He fell back onto his bed. 

“Yeah well get ready. I'll be back in half an hour.” You decided to leave and give him time to get ready, but then, on your way to the door, something hit the back of your head. You turned to see a pillow on the floor behind you. 

“Fine, I'll be back in fifteen minutes.” You stuck your tongue out at him as he began to whine about that not being enough time to get ready. While he was whining, you threw the pillow back at him, hitting his chest. Then you quickly ducked out of his room while yelling that you would be back. 

You took advantage of those fifteen minutes to find something casual to wear. Then you went back to Mokuba's room to pick him up. You knocked on the door, not wanting to see him in a state of undress, but when nobody responded, you opened the door and looked in... 

Only to discover that Mokuba had gone back to sleep. You rolled your eyes and decided that it wasn't worth it. Apparently Mokuba didn't actually do anything during daylight hours. 

Now you were stuck with a problem. Should you go out and risk being caught alone by paparazzi? Or should you stay in the mansion? 

You knew that Kaiba had a whole bunch of video games somewhere. That might be fun for a while, but you really didn't feel like playing video games at the moment. It was such a nice day outside, and you wanted to go out and enjoy it. 

Then you had an idea. You ran back to your room and grabbed some books. Then you looked for a large towel. After securing the towel, you packed some food into a bag. The books, towel, and food all got thrown into your car, and then you were on your way to the ocean. 

It wasn't too long of a drive to reach your favorite beach, and parking wasn't an issue either. It was nice weather out, but still not warm enough to sit around in a bathing suit or go swimming so the beach was devoid of life. 

You set up camp on the shore and settled down to do some reading. You'd just started reading your book when a loud, pitiful meow interrupted you. You looked around and noticed a kitten coming towards you. The poor thing was meowing so pitifully and having such a hard time walking on the sand that you got up and went over to him. 

As soon as you picked up the kitten, he stopped meowing and began to purr. You held him up so you could look at his belly and confirm that he was a male kitten. Yep, male and a bony thing too. Probably a stray. 

You carried the little kitten over to your towel and settled him in your lap as you reached into your bag for a sandwich that you'd packed. You pulled the meat out of the sandwich and ripped it into little pieces and you began feeding the kitten. He ate ravenously, and your heart went out to him. As the kitten purred and head-butted your hand, you decided that he was going to come back to the Kaiba mansion with you. 

The fact that the little kitten was so cute helped your decision. He had black stripes and dots all over his brown fur and little white paws with black on the bottom of them. He was affectionate and not at all vicious like most strays. 

So how were you going to get him back? You couldn't really let him roam around the car while you were driving, but you didn't have a box or anything to keep him in and tying him into your bag seemed a little cruel. 

Unfortunately it looked like the bag was the only thing you had. It would have to be good enough. Back at the car, you emptied the bag onto the passenger seat and then hung the back from the headrest of the seat. You stuck the kitten into the bag, glad that he was small enough to fit and still young enough to have a hard time getting out. 

On the way home, you stopped to pick up a litter box, litter, and some kitten food. As you picked up the litter, it occurred to you that the kitten might not be house trained. You hoped he was because it was not going to be fun for you if he wasn't. Also Kaiba would be super pissed off. 

Not that Kaiba was going to be happy in the first place, but that was his problem. Mostly. 

Once you'd gotten back to the mansion, you decided that limiting the kitten's area would probably be necessary for a while. Your bedroom and bathroom would be the best area so you could keep an eye on him. You carried the bags of cat stuff and the kitten up to your room, then you carried him into your bathroom where you put together the litter box. He sniffed at the litter box as you poured litter into it and then he scratched at it a little. Seemingly bored by it, he wandered off to inspect his new surroundings. 

His attention was brought back to you the moment you popped open a can of food. He was back at your feet, meowing as you put it into a bowl and then purring as you placed it down for him. You pet his head affectionately. “What am I going to name you?” 

“I hope you aren't planning on keeping it.” 

Your head shot up, and you saw Mokuba sitting in the doorway. He'd been talking to you, but he was looking at the kitten. 

“Yeah, I was.” 

Mokuba looked a bit worried at your response. “You know Seto never let me have any pets. I don't think he'd like you keeping one.” 

You frowned. You knew Kaiba would likely be against a kitten, but unless he was allergic, there was absolutely no reason for you to not keep him. You said as much to Mokuba who just shook his head and left you alone with your new pet. 

The kitten, on the other hand, had finished his food and wandered into your bedroom. He was in the process of trying to jump onto your bed. You took pity on him and lifted him onto your bed. Then you watched as found a comfortable spot and promptly fell asleep. It was amusing to you that he'd fallen asleep on Kaiba's side of the bed rather than your own. You decided to let the poor thing have some sleep and went downstairs to play some videogames. 

\-----

You were getting your ass handed to you by Mokuba in a fighting game when Kaiba finally came home. At first, you thought that Kaiba was home fairly early, but then you looked at the clock and realized that you and Mokuba had been playing games for hours, and that it was one in the morning. 

You had just been able to block one of Mokuba's attacks when Kaiba stormed into the room. “What is that creature doing in my bed?!” 

You looked up at Kaiba and stared at him, trying to figure out what the heck he was talking about. Then you heard the sound of your character dying. Mokuba had knocked you out while you'd been distracted. 

“You CHEAT!” you yelled at Mokuba. 

He just rolled his eyes. “I was about to beat you even before Seto came in.” 

You glared at him. “It's not over! I shall get my revenge in the next match!” 

“Is someone going to tell me about the thing in my room?!” Kaiba interrupted, sounding frustrated. You assumed that being ignored was making him angry. 

You tried to figure out what he was talking about, but you honestly had no idea. "Animal, plant, or mineral?" 

“I think he means the kitten,” Mokuba supplied. 

Your eyes widened as the light bulb went on. “OH!” Then they narrowed as you realized what Kaiba had said. “It's not a thing, he's a kitten.” 

“I'm perfectly aware of what it is,” Kaiba snapped. “What I want to know is what it's doing in my bed.” 

“Our bed,” you corrected. “If you expect me to live here and sleep in that bed, then it's mine as well as yours correct?” You had your argument all planned out already. 

“Fine, but that still doesn't answer WHY there's a kitten there.” He seemed completely irritated by you at this point. 

“He's mine now. I adopted him.” You met Kaiba's eyes with your own, challenging him. You were going to be stubborn on this. he was not going to get rid of your kitten. 

There was a pause. “I don't want something filthy and flea ridden in my—our bed.” 

Your mouth dropped open at that. “How can you SAY that about such an adorable kitten?!” 

Mokuba, figuring that you were both probably going to kill each other, hightailed it out of the room. Neither of you really paid attention to him, but you wished he had stayed to back you up. Then again, he already warned you that Kaiba wouldn't be happy about the kitten. That was probably the most you could expect from Mokuba. 

“I refuse to keep that thing in my house.” 

“ _He's_ a CAT! Not a thing. Do I have to get out a children's book and teach you about cats?” 

Oh, you shouldn't have said that. Seto Kaiba was looking like he was going to kill you. Your body would probably never be found. 

“You aren't keeping it.” His voice was low and dangerous. 

You stayed stubborn. “I am keeping him.” You were half tempted to stick out your tongue but decided that would be unwise. 

The room was silent as you and Kaiba glared at each other. He seemed to be sizing you up and calculating his next step. Finally he spoke, “If I let you keep the... cat... then you have to agree to a few conditions.” 

You were wary. “What are the conditions?” 

“First condition, make sure the cat doesn't ruin anything. There are quite a few priceless artifacts decorating various rooms. For anything the cat ruins you have to give me something in exchange.” He paused to let you consider the first condition. 

“What would that something be?” 

“It would depend on what was ruined.” 

He was avoiding the question and trying to trap you into an open-ended agreement. You may have been stupid enough to unknowingly sign marriage documents, but you were smart enough to learn a lesson from it. Agreements with Seto Kaiba should be studied with suspicion. 

Your skepticism seemed to show because Kaiba finally said, “Look, keep the cat under control, and you won't have to worry about it.” 

He had a point. You were sure that the kitten couldn't cause that much trouble if you kept an eye on him. “Ok, what else?” 

“When you start work on Monday, I don't want you to say anything negative about me. It could get back to the press, and I don't want to have to deal with that.” 

“Wait!” You thought about what he'd just said. “ **When** I start work? Does that mean I'm hired?” 

“Yes, the project's director loved your artwork. He said it suited the game perfectly.” 

“YAY!” you shouted and impulsively hugged Kaiba. You were excited by the idea of a new project. You pulled away from him and grinned. “And of course I'm not going to tell anyone anything negative about you! Well, provided you let me keep the kitten. Otherwise I'm going to complain and whine for _days_.” 

“Then we have a deal. Now go get that thing off my pillow.” 

“He's a kitten not a thing!”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the weekly update~ 
> 
> This chapter is longer than the previous ones, and it's kind of a turning point of sorts. When I originally wrote the chapter, I actually wrote the ending of this chapter in an English class. It was awkward. 
> 
> Enjoy~

The shout was what woke you up, but the sudden weight on your body was what forced you to actually open your eyes rather than simply roll over and go back to sleep. Instinctively, you tried to hit and push away whatever was on top of you. Your hand hit something soft and fleshy, and someone yelled in pain. 

During your struggle, your mind fully woke up, and you were now aware of your situation. In the dark room, all you could make out was the human form on top of you. Why was there a person in your bed and on top of you?! You kicked and hit the person furiously before your legs were pinned down by their body and your hands were pinned by theirs. 

“What the hell are you doing?” 

That familiar, angry voice jogged your memories, and you realized where you were. You couldn't quite make out his face in the dark, but you knew that he was probably angry and waiting for an explanation at the moment. Trying to hit him probably hadn't put him in the best mood. 

You tried to defend yourself. “You woke me up." 

He was silent. Obviously that was not a good enough explanation. You continued to explain, “I didn't remember where I was and just thought there was a random stranger in my bed.” 

A pause. “You thought I was a stranger?” His tone told you that he was now wondering about your intelligence. 

“I refuse to be held accountable for what I may or may not think when I'm abruptly woken up.” You tried to cross your arms defiantly but couldn't. Kaiba still had you pinned down. “Are you going to get off of me anytime soon by the way?” 

The moment after you said that, you began to wish it weren't so dark in your room. You couldn't see Kaiba's face, and he didn't seem inclined to answer your question. Then he began to move. You breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he was going to get off you. 

Your bubble of relief popped the moment one of his legs swung around so that he was straddling you. 

“You know, I asked if you were going to get off of me so that you would, you know, GET OFF,” you drawled. “I didn't mean that you should make yourself comfortable.” 

He leaned forward, his face now close enough for you to see his expression. 

“It's too late for that,” he murmured. 

Normally this might have turned you into a puddle of mush, but it was some obscene hour of the night, and you were tired. All you wanted was to get back to sleep. 

“Look, if you woke me up thinking that you could somehow get into my pants, you are a very stupid man.” 

That did it. He released your hands without another word and rolled off of you. You imagined that he was doing the Kaiba equivalent of pouting. 

“Your damn cat was the one who caused me to wake you up. It jumped on me while I was sleeping.” 

Your eyes widened at his angry voice. “You didn't kill him did you?” You quickly sat upright and ineffectually looked around for your kitten in the dark room. Seto was silent, and you hoped that your poor kitten had survived attacking him. 

“I would have, but I had to deal with you trying to kill me.” 

It was a relief to know that your confusion had allowed the kitten an escape. You said a good night to Kaiba, rolled over, and closed your eyes to go back to sleep. 

At least, you tried to sleep. 

“GOD DAMN IT!” 

“MROW!” 

“Oh no, kitty!” you cried, knowing that the kitten had attacked Seto again. 

The night continued in this fashion for a short period of time. Apparently, the kitten liked playing at obscene hours of the morning. Unfortunately, he had decided that Seto would make a perfect playmate. You had to admit that, after you gave up on sleep, Seto's reactions every time the kitten decided to attack became highly amusing. 

For the moment, you were holding the kitten in your lap and protecting him from the evil Seto Kaiba. The kitten purred happily, seemingly unaware of the murderous aura emanating from the man across the room. You were not as oblivious and eyed Kaiba suspiciously. 

“Don't you have to get to work?” you hinted. 

He simply growled in response to that question. This terrified you, and you wished that you had a white flag you could wave around. Thankfully your question had been valid. It was past time for him to go to work, and he knew it. With a glare that clearly told you that the cat was still in danger, Kaiba left the room, presumably to go to work. You waited a minute or two to ensure that he wasn't coming back before breathing a sigh of relief. 

Then you glared at the kitten. “You are going to get us both into a heap of trouble aren't you? Maybe that's what I should name you, trouble.” 

The kitten simply purred. 

Then a thought occurred to you, it was Sunday. Kaiba had just gone to work at... you looked at the clock, SIX AM on a SUNDAY. You pet your kitten while considering all the time Kaiba spent at work. He usually went into work at six and almost never came home until sometime after nine or ten. Your first few days in his house were one of the rare exceptions. (All of this was according to Mokuba. Your handy source for all Kaiba information.) 

Seto Kaiba needed a day off. It was no wonder he exploded at your poor, innocent kitten. He was probably wound too tight from working for too long. 

With that in mind, you got ready for a day of plotting. 

Or rather, a day of pleading, whining, and annoying. Instead of planning how you were going to ensnare Kaiba and make him take a day off, you decided to just go down to his office. Plotting would be useless unless you could actually get him to agree to taking off for the day. 

The Kaiba Corp. building was practically empty. You could tell that most people had the day off and wondered why Kaiba even bothered. With Mokuba's access card (You knew that you should consider giving that back to him eventually, but hey, he still hadn't noticed that you'd stolen it so why bother?) it was easy enough to make your way through the building. 

As you let yourself into Kaiba's office, you noted that even his secretary wasn't in today. Then you realized that Kaiba wasn't in his office. You frowned, not knowing where else he could be, and decided to sit down and wait for him. 

As you waited, you began looking through his desk. At first it looked incredibly organized. Then you actually opened a drawer, and the stuff inside practically exploded in your face. Wondering if that was the case with all of them, you opened all of the desk drawers. They were all incredibly messy and disorganized, and you realized something about the great Seto Kaiba: he was actually an incredibly messy individual. He only appeared to be organized. 

As you dumped everything out of his drawers, you wondered what his room would look like if he didn't have maids to clean up after him. You began to organize everything into piles and considered checking under your bed when you got home. Of course, you doubted that you'd find evidence of his messiness there. The maids kept everything organized and clean in the mansion. 

While you were in the process of organizing his desk, Kaiba walked into his office. As you heard his office door shut, you looked up and saw him standing there and staring at you as if he weren't sure what to say. 

Before he could order you to explain yourself, you told him, “I'm organizing your desk. I noticed it was a mess.” 

He sighed and placed the papers he was carrying on the top of his desk. “How am I supposed to work with everything on the floor?” His voice sounded strained, like he was trying not to yell at you. To be fair, you were actually very impressed that he wasn't yelling at you. You would have yelled at you. 

“Well, I'm not actually working on your desk.” You gestured toward his empty chair. “So feel free to ignore me.” 

“You have all my pens.” He growled at you. 

“Oh.” You looked at the pile of pens on the floor nearby. Then you scooped them up, put them all in a pen-holder, and stuck that on his desk. “There.” 

He sighed, apparently he was not amused, and sat down. There must have been something preventing him from being able to work, because he placed his fingers to his forehead and leaned on his desk. You knew that somehow, someway, you were inadvertently frustrating him. 

“What is it now?” you asked, knowing that he was probably going to yell at you. 

“You're still here.” 

You gaped at him, wondering just how sensitive he was if your mere presence was distracting to him. You had nothing to say in response to that so you simply ignored him and continued organizing everything. It wouldn't take you very long anyway. He could just deal with your presence until you were done. A few moments later, you heard him sit down at his desk and begin to work. 

When you finished organizing his desk and putting everything into the drawers, you were going to announce loudly that you were done. When you grinned at him, ready to interrupt his work, you realized that he no longer remembered that you were there. He was working so quickly and seemed so involved that you didn't want to interrupt. Except you had no real choice. You needed to put the drawers back into his desk, and it would be hard to do that while he was sitting at the desk. 

As you stared at him and debated if you should interrupt his work or not, his head abruptly snapped up and his blue eyes met yours. One eyebrow slid up, clearly giving you permission to speak. 

“I'm finished.” 

Silence. Obviously he hadn't heard anything he cared about in that sentence. 

“I need to put the drawers back in your desk?” Even though that should have been a statement, it came out sounding like a question. 

“Then do it.” 

“Well, I didn't want to interrupt you.” 

He groaned. “You already have.” 

You noted how tired he sounded. As you put the drawers back, you came up with an idea to get him to stop working for the rest of the day. You hoped that he would be tired enough to acquiesce. You knew that it was a risky idea. There was the chance that he would just get pissed off and kick you out, but you decided to go for it anyway and promptly sat down on the top of his desk. 

He glared. 

You remained unmoved. 

His eyebrow rose. 

You grinned. 

Sick of this game, he finally demanded that you tell him exactly what you thought you were doing. 

“I'm stopping you from working.” You took a deep breath and braced yourself for his reaction. 

His glare intensified. “I don't want to deal with your games right now.” 

You frowned, but ignored his words. “Take the day off.” 

“Get out of the way.” 

You held his glare. "No." 

He stood and slid an arm behind your back before sliding another under your knees. He lifted you up, forcibly removing you from his desk. Instead of just letting him drop you onto your butt, you wrapped your arms around his neck. He released you despite your death grip. Your feet hit the ground, but your arms stayed latched on his neck, pulling him down with you. He lost his balance and fell toward you, knocking both of you to the ground. He landed on top of you, but he threw out his hands to cushion the fall and didn't crush you. Your arms were still around his neck so he couldn't push himself away. 

He looked down at you and growled. “What is wrong with you?!” 

You were confused, and if you hadn't been pinned between his body and the floor, you would have recoiled from his hostility. Suddenly you were feeling very small. 

“I just wanted you to take a day off and relax,” you muttered. 

He sighed, but his face still maintained his angry scowl. “You do realize that I'm a CEO of a major corporation?” 

“Yes—” 

“So you also know that I can't just leave my work whenever you decide you want me to?” 

Oh, oh. You suddenly understood why he was angry with you. He probably thought that you were going to make this a regular habit or something. 

“Yes I know! But just for today? Please?” You gave him your best puppy eyes. 

“No.” 

Your mind quickly ran through a list of ideas to get him to stop work. While you sat on the floor and plotted, he quickly resumed his work. Even though he was working, he wasn't lulled into a false sense of security by your silence. You could tell from his posture that he was still expecting you to attack at any moment. 

Another idea struck. 

“What if you could kind of work but relax at the same time?” you offered. 

He instantly dismissed your idea as, "Impossible." 

You were not deterred. This was a good plan. “No really!” You could tell he wasn't going to ask you about what you meant, so you began to explain, “Go to Kaiba Land with me! We can go on some rides and walk around, and since this'll be unexpected you can also treat it like a surprise observation of your employees there!” 

He put his pen down. It was a sign that he was at least considering your offer. You crossed your fingers and waited for him to decide. He looked over at the clock and seemed to be considering the time. It was almost eleven so you knew that he wouldn't be able to use that as an excuse. You had plenty of time to spend at Kaiba Land. 

“Fine.” He sounded somewhat frustrated, but you were excited that you were going to be able to pull him away from his work. 

“Do you need a few minutes to wrap up everything here?” 

“Yes, wait for me out in the waiting area.” 

You made a face at him. He didn't notice, so you muttered nonsense about him as you left the room. You thought of something right before you closed the door. You stuck your head back into his office and yelled, “You only have half an hour before I come back in here!” 

“Then get out!” he yelled. He might have been joking, but you weren't quite sure. Either way you shut the door and found yourself in an empty room with nothing to do. 

You sat down in one of the waiting chairs, and your cell phone chose that moment to go off. You dug it out of your purse and glanced at the caller ID. It was your mother. After wincing, you pressed the 'ignore' button. 

She'd been calling you ever since the news ran that article with the picture of you. You knew that you'd have to talk to her eventually, but at the moment, her nasty voicemails were all you felt like you could handle. 

Besides, it wasn't like you had answers for any of her questions. Your marriage wasn't intentional, and you didn't know how you were going to get out of it. For the moment, you were simply living in the now, and talking to her would probably pop your bubble of slight denial. 

It was surprising that she hadn't tried to hunt you down yet, but for all you knew, she had tried and failed. The last time you had any contact with the woman was a few years ago, and she probably didn't even know where you lived before you moved in with Kaiba. 

Well, you'd call her eventually... maybe. Actually, you would continue to avoid contact with her for as long as possible. 

Kaiba emerged from his office after fifteen minutes. 

You stared at him, happy but shocked. “I'm surprised I didn't have to drag you out by force.” 

He raised his eyebrow, and you knew that he was questioning whether or not you actually could move him by force. You chose not to rise to that challenge, knowing that it would simply result in a loss for you. You stood and walked over to the elevator. 

“Well, let's go then.” You pressed the down button and the elevator dinged. He followed you out of the building and to the parking structure. 

“You've been parking in my space,” he noted. 

You glanced at him, trying to figure out if he approved or not. He seemed to be amused by the idea, which was a bit of a relief. “Well, technically, this is your car. Which reminds me--did you want to drive? CAN you even drive?” 

The look that he gave you was incredulous. “Of course I can drive.” 

You shook your head. It had been silly of you to suggest that there was anything Seto Kaiba couldn't do. You dug out the keys, unlocked the car, and passed them over to Kaiba before getting into the passenger's seat. You watched as he adjusted the driver's seat for his significantly-taller-than-yours body before getting into the car. He relaxed back into the seat, checking the mirrors before starting the car and taking off for Kaiba Land. 

The moment the two of you were in the park, you grabbed Kaiba's hand and nearly dragged him toward the Blue Eyes roller coaster. You'd been dying to go on that ride ever since they'd put it in last year, but you never had the time. Now that you were here, it was definitely going to be the first thing you did. 

He stopped letting you drag him forward just short of the entrance for the ride. You turned to glare at him with frustration as you futilely attempted to yank him along. 

“What are you doing?” he demanded. 

You couldn't believe that he was asking you such a dumb question. “Obviously I am trying to get you to go on this ride with me.” 

With his free hand he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I meant why are you getting in line? I do own this park.” 

Well, now you felt like the dumb one. You let him pull you around the line and straight to the loading dock of the coaster. The employees working there were fortunately rather smart and recognized their boss right away. They asked you if you wanted to sit in the very front row. 

“Um, the back of the coaster if you don't mind?” 

Kaiba looked at you, an unasked question in his expression. You knew exactly what he was asking. 

“The very back is more fun. You get thrown around more.” As a roller coaster junkie, you'd tested this before and knew it to be true. 

He didn't respond. He simply led you over to the back row of the coaster. 

Somehow, at the end of the ride, you convinced him to go on it again and again. It was a fun ride, and you didn't know when you would be able to come back to the park. You wanted to ride it until you were sick. 

That didn't work out. Eventually he told you no and forced you to get off the ride. You almost made him drag you off of the ride kicking and screaming, but he coerced you away from it with promises of ice cream. 

You would have stayed on the coaster if you knew what a bad idea the ice cream parlor would be. The moment the two of you stepped inside, insane screaming began. 

“Oh no.” You felt his hand tighten around yours. 

As you glanced in his direction, you noticed something that made you freeze in fear, Kaiba was looking slightly worried. That was never ever a good thing. 

Before either of you could fully process what was going on, they had you surrounded. The screaming, rabid fangirls had you surrounded. 

You presumed that the hand motions Kaiba was making toward the people working at the register meant, 'Call security NOW!' Or at least, as you clung to Kaiba for safety, you hoped that security would be coming soon. You did not like the looks that some of these girls were giving you. 

“Ladies,” Kaiba's voice was uncharacteristically suave, “if you want a picture with me then you'll all have to get in line. Who's first?” There was a stunned silence, followed by all of the girls screaming, 'Me first!' at the same time. That caused a fight to erupt as every last one of them wanted to be the first one to get a picture. You were in complete shock as Kaiba slowly pulled you away from the mob of kicking, screaming, and biting bodies. 

“Time to get out of here,” he whispered while he shoved you through an 'Employees Only' door. 

“Wait, wait!” You grabbed a stunned employee's arm. “Can I have an ice cream cone please?” 

“Are you crazy? We need to leave!” Kaiba growled. 

You rolled your eyes. “Please, they'll be fighting until the cows come home, but just in case...” You turned to the employee. “I'll be waiting for that ice cream in the back room.” 

Kaiba seemed nervous as both of you sat in the back of the ice cream shop. You happily licked your ice cream and listened to security as they broke up the fight that Kaiba had created. Much of the whiny excuses that the girls tried to use were highly amusing. 

“So... can we go on another ride now?” you asked after you'd finished your ice cream. 

He just stared at you. “Don't you want to go home yet?” 

“But...” You brought out the sad puppy eyes. “I've only been on one ride!” 

“Five times.” 

“So? Still one ride.” 

“How about we go to one of the duel rooms instead? We can lock the room while we duel,” he offered. 

You raised both eyebrows. “I don't duel.” 

He made a sound of frustration. “Fine! But I'm going to have two of the security guards follow us.” 

You shrugged. You assumed that would be the case. 

The rest of the day at Kaiba Land passed with very few incidents. The park's security did a good job keeping any other fangirls away from you and Kaiba. Of course they could only keep them from getting too close. They couldn't keep them from watching the two of you. Somehow you ended up getting followed by a small train of girls. The little crowd kept their distance and watched the two of you. Their behavior creeped you out a great deal, but you still managed to convince Kaiba to stay until the nighttime fireworks. 

Once you got home, Kaiba ran off to his office, probably to get in some more work before bed. You were quickly cornered by Mokuba who revealed that he was currently in awe of you and wanted to know how you'd managed to convince Seto to take a day off **and** let you keep the cat. 

You told Mokuba about the agreement you'd made in order to keep the cat. 

“You seriously agreed to an open ended contract with my brother?” Mokuba seemed to have a hard time digesting the terms of your agreement. 

“Yeah.” 

He rolled his eyes at you. “No wonder Seto was able to trick you into marrying him. You don't know anything about contracts.” 

You felt insulted. You weren't that dumb. You just didn't like reading legal documents. They were long and boring. “Come on, it's not like my kitten is going to actually break anything.” 

Mokuba started to say something in response but stopped abruptly and looked introspective for a moment. Then a grin stretched its way across his face. 

You didn't like the look of that grin. It was a warning of bad things to come. Then he ran away before you could accuse him of suspicious thoughts. That was scarier, but you weren't going to chase him around. So you dismissed your feeling of unease. 

But when you heard the sound of something breaking, that feeling of unease doubled, and you ran toward the sound, trying to figure out what had happened. 

You found Mokuba standing in the foyer, holding your kitten, and grinning at the pieces of what used to be a vase. You looked from Mokuba's grin to the broken pieces on the floor, and you knew exactly what had happened. 

You rounded on Mokuba. “What are you doing?!” 

He grinned, holding up your kitten. “Keeping your cat from getting hurt on the shards.” 

You glared. “I meant, WHY are you breaking stuff? I'm gonna tell Seto it was you.” 

“But it wasn't me.” His face was full of faux innocence. “Your cat broke it.” 

“What is going on?” Kaiba roared from the top of the stairs. 

You pointed at Mokuba. “Mokuba broke something and is trying to frame my kitten!” 

“Not true! The cat broke it!” 

You gave Mokuba your best glare. It was a glare that promised horror in the future if he continued to blame your cat. Mokuba was not impressed by your glare. 

Kaiba growled, and your attention snapped back to him. You flinched at the irritated glare that was currently being directed your way. Now _that_ was scary. No wonder your glare didn't impress Mokuba. Kaiba took his time walking down the staircase, and your instincts screamed that you needed to flee. You stupidly held your ground. 

Mokuba was smarter. “Well, I've gotta go get ready for a date, later!” 

“HEY! You jerk!” You tried to chase after Mokuba, but Kaiba grabbed your arm, easily holding you back. 

“Are you trying to get out of your end of the bargain?” 

“No! It was Mokuba! Not the kitten!” you whined. 

His facial expression made it very clear that he didn't believe you. Curse that Mokuba! He did this knowing that Kaiba wouldn't believe you over him. 

“You're fortunate.” Kaiba smirked. “That vase wasn't too expensive.” 

“So you'll let it slide?” You were hopeful, maybe Mokuba's plan would be thwarted. There was no way he could try to pull this twice. Kaiba would get suspicious if Mokuba was always around when the 'kitten' broke something. 

“No, but I won't take much from you in exchange.” 

You tried to pull your arm out of Kaiba's grip as you swore that you'd get Mokuba for doing this to you. Waking him up at six AM seemed like a very fun plan. 

Your plotting was interrupted as Kaiba pulled you toward him and held your body against his. Your mind went blank as you stared into his eyes. 

Then he picked you up and tossed you over his shoulder. 

“What are you doing?” you demanded as he began to carry you up the stairs. 

“Taking you to the bedroom.” 

Oh no. Was he going to force you to have sex with him just because of a broken vase? That was totally and completely unfair. You started to whine about how it wasn't your cat and that Mokuba did it on purpose. You continued your whining until he dropped you onto the bed and crawled on top of you, effectively keeping you from squirming away. 

“This isn't fair!” 

He kissed you. It was short but forceful. “Shut up.” 

Then he kissed you again. This time he didn't press his lips against yours as roughly, choosing to nip at your bottom lip. You couldn't stop yourself from kissing him back as you grabbed the front of his shirt. Then, as he was kissing you, one of his hands grabbed your knee and pulled it up. His hips ground into yours, and you moaned, allowing his tongue access to your mouth. One of his hands slipped underneath your shirt. His fingers felt cold and you shivered slightly. 

The kissing stopped as he tugged your shirt up and over your head. You turned red as he eyed your bra, but instead of making a comment about the color, he simply reached around and unclasped it. This turned into a brief tug-of-war as you tried to keep your bra on. You didn't know if you were ready for him to see you topless yet. Seto was, as always, victorious and your bra was removed. 

You tried to cover your chest, but he held your arms to your side. You looked away from him as he stared at your chest. You couldn't deny that you were breathing heavily from his kisses, but being naked made you uncomfortable. His hips pushed against yours. You forgot your embarrassment, and your chest arched up as your head fell back. 

Then one of his hands cupped your breast. You were ready to object, but he pulled you into another kiss. You couldn't help but respond. You were attracted to the man, and he was making you feel so good. 

He abruptly pulled away. He rolled away from you and stood. 

From his position next to the bed, he observed your flushed and half dressed state with a smirk. “That'll do.” 

You were confused, and if you were being honest with yourself, you very much wanted him to continue. “What?” 

“That's enough for the vase.” 

“Oh.” Right. The vase. The reason he had essentially jumped you. 

“Keep a better eye on your cat,” he warned. 

For a brief second, you considered finding something really expensive and breaking it yourself.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are the original author's notes:  
> I'm somewhat pleased with this chapter. Though it's rather broken up so I don't know how well it reads. I think it's a turning point of sorts though. Enjoy~!

You glared at the clock as if it were to blame for the fact that you had to wake up at 6am, even though you had to get up this early for a combination of reasons. Mostly because Kaiba had demanded that both of you head to Kaiba Corp. together, which meant obscenely early, but also because you wanted to ambush Mokuba. 

Revenge was going to be a sweet, sweet dish. 

So you rolled out of bed, dragging a blanket with you for warmth, and crept to Mokuba's room. You slowly opened the door, even though opening it normally probably wouldn't have roused him. Then you ran and jumped onto his bed, landing on top of him. 

Like the last time you woke him up, he jumped awake and started swearing. You grinned while you waited for him to calm down. 

When he did, you simply stated, “That was revenge, but next time I'll take my anger out on your cars,” before leaving his room. His angry shouts followed you down the hallway. It had totally been worth waking up early to do that. 

It was easy enough to get back to your own room. Thankfully it was just down the hall, but you were still getting used to the mansion's layout. You went straight toward the bathroom. It was time for a shower! A nice warm shower. 

You opened the door, only to discover that the shower was already occupied. The clear shower door gave your eyes a great view Kaiba's naked body. You slammed the door shut, not wanting Kaiba to turn and notice you. You didn't know how he would react to seeing you staring at him, but you didn't think the memory of his body would leave your mind anytime soon. 

Not that you wanted it to go away, it was a very nice mental image. The way the water had been running down his very lean barely-there muscles... was probably not something you should focus on. This was going to make talking to Seto awkward. It was difficult to have a conversation with someone when you wanted to shove him down to the bed and rip his clothes off. Which was, again, not something you really felt comfortable thinking about. At least not while Kaiba was around to catch you. 

Feeling cold and having nothing better to do, you crawled back into bed and curled up under the covers. It was nice and warm, and you quickly found yourself falling back asleep. 

Someone was shaking you awake, but all you wanted was for them to go away so you could sleep. You tried to explain that to them, but it simply came out as an incoherent mumble against your pillow. 

“Do you want a job or not?! Get up, or I'm leaving you.” 

You waved your hand at the person, still hoping they'd leave you alone. 

Then you realized three things: the person in question was Seto Kaiba, he seemed angry, and today was your first day of work. 

Your head shot out from under the pillows, and you stared at him, wide eyed. “What time is it?” 

“Seven.” 

Oh. You calmed down. You didn't start work until nine. You had more than enough time to get ready. 

“Why'd you wake me up?” you demanded. “I could've slept in for a bit longer.” 

He glared, and you weren't really sure why. Honestly, at this point, a glare seemed more like his default facial expression than an actual sign of anything. 

“You've got fifteen minutes to get ready. I'm already late.” 

Oh right, you were supposed to go into work with him. Why did he even have to get to work so early anyway? He was the boss. Bosses are never late. You tried to explain that to him, but he growled at you. Deciding that not arguing with him would be better for your health, you quickly got out of bed and began getting ready for your first official day at work. 

“Thirteen minutes.” You weren't getting ready fast enough if Kaiba felt the need to give you a countdown. 

“Can I have time for a shower?” you begged. 

“If you wanted to shower, you should have gotten up earlier.” 

“Hey! I did but—” Your protest trailed off as you remembered exactly what you saw earlier in the morning. Then again, it could have been just a dream. 

No, it was definitely too vivid to have been a dream. You looked at Kaiba, who was fully dressed by now, and recalled exactly what was under those clothes. Red-faced, you dashed into the bathroom with your clothes in hand. You decided to take a quick shower, shortening it by not washing your hair, before throwing your clothes on. You rushed back into your room, looking around for Kaiba and his glare. He wasn't there. That wasn't good. You hoped that he hadn't decided to just up and leave you. 

You wished that you had packed everything last night as you rushed around trying to find everything and anything that you would possibly need for the entire day. You ran out of the room and stumbled down the stairs, trying to think of what to do. Kaiba had probably abandoned you, but you did have access to his car now so you could just drive yourself to work. 

You idly wondered why he hadn't barged in on you while you were getting ready for work. Then again, he probably just got angry and left you. Oh, he was so going to kill you later. 

“You sound like an elephant coming down those stairs.” 

Your head snapped up, and you looked around until you spotted Kaiba. He was standing near the base of the staircase and looking at you with disdain. He seemed to be sizing you up and finding you lacking in some way. You knew that you should be happy that he was maybe getting sick of you or something, but it made you feel strangely sad. 

“Are you finally ready?” 

“Oh, yeah! Just let me grab something to eat.” You weren't sure if it was a good sign that he was still here, but you needed food. 

“No time.” He shoved a muffin that had seemingly come out of nowhere at you and grabbed your arm. You were surprised that he seemed to be pulling you over to the garage rather than to the front door. Was he not taking the limo today? 

He pulled you over to one of his cars and unlocked the door. You almost asked him why he was driving today before you realized that he would bite your head off. So you got into the car with no questions asked. 

Midway to work, the two of you hit the morning traffic. Kaiba swore violently and glared at you as if the line of cars in his path was entirely your doing. You leaned back into your seat, intimidated by his glare of death. 

“This is your fault.” 

“What?!” He really did think this was your fault? How the heck could you have caused all these cars to magically appear? 

“If you had been ready on time we wouldn't be stuck in this traffic.” 

“Hey! There's still traffic early in the morning, and you know it! Besides, we've got plenty of time so chill.” 

“I should have been at work over an hour ago!” He honked his horn as the light turned green and none of the cars in front of him moved. 

You almost jumped at his outburst, but the seat belt held you down. He really needed to tone down the road rage. Maybe some humor was in order? 

“You know, maybe you should get a giant laser and zap all the cars in your path?” you suggested while hoping he wouldn't take you seriously and actually get a laser installed in his car. 

“That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.” 

Apparently you didn't have to worry about him liking your idea too much. You decided that he should be introduced to Mario Kart so that he could fully appreciate the idea of attacking other cars and driving them off the road. 

As he cut another car off while merging, you realized that your idea was actually very stupid indeed. As if Kaiba needed a game to drive like a crazy person. 

Once he pulled into the parking lot, you were almost ready to kiss the ground. As Kaiba had become more and more frustrated, his driving had become more and more insane. He almost killed a few bicyclists and cut off numerous other drivers. You were convinced that you would see his car on the news later tonight. 

Kaiba slammed the car door, and you watched as he stormed away. He was either so angry he didn't want to see you, or he just forgot about you. Either way, avoiding him seemed like a good idea for the moment. The only negative being that you still didn't know where you were supposed to report for work. Kaiba Corp. was far too big for you to roam around searching for your new boss. You would get lost far before you found your new office area. 

Seto Kaiba threw the passenger door open. You were surprised that it didn't fly off the car. “What is taking you so long?!” His absolute and complete fury caused you to flinch away from him. 

“Sorry." Your apology was a knee-jerk reaction. You'd never ever been yelled at like that. 

“Then get out of the damn car and follow me!” 

You followed him closely, not wanting to give him a reason to get angrier. Thoroughly petrified at this point, you wondered what you'd ever seen in him. You weren't too scared to notice that the very few people in Kaiba Corp. at this hour were all smart enough to get the heck out of his way. Everyone was very carefully NOT making any eye contact with him, but you noted that a few of the braver employees kept glancing your way. 

He dropped you off on the fourth floor, letting you know that this was your stop by shouting, “Jin! Your new artist is here!” 

Mere seconds after that, a man with white hair dashed up to the two of you. He bowed to Kaiba and thanked him for the new artist. Kaiba simply stormed off without a sound. 

The moment Kaiba was out of sight, the man collapsed to the floor. “Oh thank God!” 

Worried, you kneeled down and asked him if he was alright. He grinned at you, his bright green eyes catching you off guard as you realized that he was a LOT younger than his hair made him seem. 

“Of course I'm ok. I've still got a job! But I haven't ever seen him this furious! You must be crazy lucky!” 

“What?” How could he call you lucky after you'd had to put up with that? 

“Whatever happened to make him angry, he didn't take it out on you! You've gotta be lucky. Anyway, I'm Jin, I'm the artistic director of this project, and I'm so glad I don't have to work with that other artist on the character designs!” He grabbed your arm and led you around the floor, giving you a tour of your new work space. 

Then he led you to your cubicle and gave you a general run down of the characters you would be working on. Then he handed you a packet with all the information and left you to work. 

You'd been planning on working your way through lunch. After all, your husband was currently very angry, probably firing people, and you didn't want to risk seeing him. Also you didn't know any of your coworkers yet. Unfortunately, your stomach had other plans and was currently demanding that you feed it. 

You poked your head out of your cubicle and noted that the entire office seemed to be working diligently and quietly. You looked into the cubicle next to yours and your neighbor seemed to be typing on a computer. 

“Excuse me,” you said quietly, not wanting to speak too loudly in such a tense environment. 

He jumped and stared at you with wide eyes. “You should get back to work! Mr. Kaiba has been firing people all morning!” 

Oh dear, you felt guilty considering you were partly the reason he was so volatile today. You almost considered trying to find Kaiba to see what you could do to calm him down. Then you realized that you had no idea how to calm him down at all and would probably just get yourself fired for slacking off. He would be willing to fire you. You had no doubt about that. 

Your grumbling stomach brought your mind back to the task at hand, and you asked your coworker for directions to the building's cafeteria. He gave you directions quickly before going back to his task. Obviously he wanted you to leave, so you left him alone without saying anything else. 

You easily found the cafeteria. It had its own floor. It was huge, with a lot of different options, but it seemed deserted. There were very few people sitting at tables, and you guessed that either these were very daring people or very valuable people. 

You bought something easy to eat while working and carried it back to your floor. Normally you might have eaten in the cafeteria and tried to get to know some people, but today was definitely not the day for that. 

Once the elevator had opened onto your floor you heard yelling that sounded suspiciously like Kaiba. You were very tempted to hit the 'close door' button and go hide in the cafeteria, but you figured that maybe you'd just be able to sneak past him. You looked around quickly, trying to pinpoint Kaiba, and there he was, dangerously close to your cubicle yelling at some poor unfortunate soul. 

It probably wasn't the smartest of ideas, but you tried to sneak past him anyway. He called your name and you froze. Slowly you faced him. 

“Yes... erm, sir?” 

“Where have you been?” he snapped. 

You held up your food like a shield. “I was just getting some lunch.” 

His annoyance was clear as he told you not to get lunch without permission tomorrow. You watched, completely confused, as he strode off to find more victims. 

One he was gone, the whispering started. 

_He didn't fire her._

_Who is she?_

_Did you hear what he said to her?_

_I've never seen her before. Is she new?_

You sighed, closed your eyes, and tuned them out. They'd figure it out eventually, unfortunately. What **you** wanted to figure out was what Kaiba had meant by waiting for permission to eat. It was a ridiculous statement, even for him. 

6:12PM found you watching as the last remaining person on your floor left. 

Everyone had probably assumed that the new girl was trying to make a good impression and finish her first day's work. Except you'd finished that about two hours ago. Your boss had left half an hour ago, and an hour ago had been quitting time. You were done for the day. Yet you were still stuck in your stupid office. You really wanted to leave but you had come to work with Kaiba and you were wary of leaving without him. Especially since he got angry about lunch. If you couldn't eat without permission, you knew that you probably couldn't leave without permission. 

Next time you were going to date a man who didn't throw tantrums. Not that you were dating Kaiba, you hurried to correct yourself. You were only married, temporarily married, to him. 

'Is this really temporary?' you wondered. You'd been ignoring your phone, your friends, and your family, thinking that maybe, just maybe you'd wake up and it would all be over. What if Kaiba never let you go? He'd kept you around for this long despite everything, and you really had expected it to all be over within a week. He wasn't even showing any signs of thinking about divorce yet. 

Okay, that was it. You grabbed your stuff. Sitting in this empty office was a waste of your time, and it was making you think about things you wanted to ignore. You still had Mokuba's access card. You were going to hunt Seto Kaiba down. 

Seto Kaiba turned out to be very easy prey to locate, which was surprising. You figured a man as high profile as him would be hard to hunt down. Except he was predictably in his office working. Retrospectively, you expected this but that didn't mean that it wasn't still anticlimactic. 

“You know, an assassin would be able to hunt you down easily.” 

His head snapped up. “What are you doing here?!” 

You ignored his question. “And I imagine there's quite a few people who'd like to see you dead. You infuriate people frequently. So, in order to avoid that assassin, you should go home. Nobody would ever look for you there. In fact, I think that if you weren't in your office working, their heads would explode.” 

Kaiba had apparently decided that ignoring you was a good course of action, he continued on with his work like you weren't even there. You didn't want to interrupt his work, but you did want to go home. 

You got straight to the point. “I'd like to go home now.” 

He picked up the phone. “I'll call the driver to come pick you up.” He called the driver and ordered him to bring the limousine to Kaiba Corp. After he hung up, he informed you that it would probably take the driver about twenty minutes to get there. 

That was a good sign. He must be in a better mood if he was this easygoing. You almost asked him what he was working on but decided against that. Instead, you looked around for something to do with your twenty minutes. 

You noticed that his office had a second door that you'd never really paid attention to before. You wandered over to the door nonchalantly and looked back at Kaiba, wondering if he'd stop you. He hadn't even looked up from his work and didn't seem to be paying any attention at all to you. You reached for the door and found it unlocked. The door seemed to lead to a small bedroom, or rather, a room with a bed inside. 

“That's where I sleep when I have a lot of work to do.” He answered your question before you even had time to form it completely. 

“Isn't that a little unhealthy? Spending all your time in your office?” Really, you were sure that it wasn't good for anyone to be stuck in the same place all day, everyday. You knew he spent too much time here but you hadn't known how bad the situation was until now. 

“You're coming home tonight right?” You didn't know what possessed you to ask him that, really you didn't. If he didn't come home, you'd have the entire bed all to yourself, you wouldn't have to worry about all that recent sexual tension. You looked back at him. 

He was smirking. “Why? Did you want me home for a specific reason tonight?” 

“No!” Stupid jerk. Here you were, worrying about him, and he was being a pervert. Well he could just rot in his stupid office for all you cared. 

Except, it was kind of sad. He really didn't do anything except work, and occasionally he slept. How could anyone live like that? How could he stand it? The monotony and repetition of his everyday life would have driven you to insanity by now. 

“The driver is here,” he said, interrupting your thoughts. 

Later that night, you were slightly roused from your sleep as you felt Seto getting into bed with you. You shifted closer to him and felt his body stiffen as you curled up next to him. 

You mumbled, “Welcome home,” and felt his muscles loosen up a bit. He hesitantly wrapped an arm around you and that was the last thing you remembered before drifting back asleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short, but there's some fun relationship development so I hope you'll all forgive me.
> 
> Enjoy!

The next morning, your alarm woke you up at six am, again. Wondering why your days had to begin at such a miserable hour now, you burrowed into the blankets and tried to reason with yourself. Yes, the world beyond the bed was horribly cold, but if you didn't get out of the bed and get ready, you were sure to anger Seto Kaiba for the second day in a row. That would be very bad indeed. Of course, there was also the promise of a nice hot shower. 

You braced yourself for the cold air and emerged from your nice warm cocoon. Blearily, you wondered where Kaiba was at the moment and hoped he wasn't in the shower. Once you were close enough to the door, you stopped to listen closely. The water was running, which meant that he was using the shower. Just great. 

This was going to cause some problems. You both went to work at the same time, and you both took showers in the morning. You would have to fight over the bathroom. 

You slammed your fist against the door. “Kaiba! Hurry it up. I've gotta shower, too, you know!” 

Now that he knew you were waiting for the shower, you decided to pick out what you were going to wear today. It was a bit difficult with your new wardrobe. There were more clothes in your closet than you were used to having, and you didn't know what was there. Just looking through everything took time. 

“What the hell did you just say?” An irritated Seto Kaiba emerged from the bathroom, and your brain shut down the moment you realized he was clothed in only a towel. 

“Um.” You racked your brain for words, any words. “You're not... wearing... anything...” 

“What an astute statement.” 

You knew you were being insulted, but the sight of his broad and bare chest was bringing back memories of yesterday and driving your brain to distraction. Whatever he said went through your head completely unprocessed. 

Somewhere between your barely strung together sentence, red face, and current state of silence, Kaiba put two and two together. It made four, and his towel dropped to the ground as he walked toward you. 

_Holy cow!_ Your hands quickly found your eyes. “Don't you have ANY modesty?!” you cried, wondering if you were ever, EVER, going to be able to look at him again. 

“No. We're married, aren't we?" He leaned down, and you felt his lips barely graze your ear. “You're blocking the closet, my dear.” 

You wanted to glare at him, a glare that would hopefully set him on fire, but you were too scared to move your hands away from your face. 

“You know, it is just too early in the day for me to have a heart attack,” you mumbled as you tried to inch away from him without running into anything. You peeked out from between two fingers, trying to decide if it was safe to look, and found that Kaiba was no longer standing in front of you. Then it was a mad dash to the bathroom while you tried not to look at your surroundings. He might have been chuckling as you slammed the door shut, but you didn't want to think about it. 

The shower helped your frazzled nerves just a bit. It was enough to help you calm down and try to think about the situation objectively. Personal space no longer seemed like something you were going to see much of now. Kaiba seemed to be aggressively pursuing a physical relationship with you... which gave you mixed feelings. 

Sure you were physically attracted to him. Most women would be. He was a very fine specimen of a man. Except, you didn't like the circumstances. The current situation was less than desirable. In fact, this situation was slowly sapping away at your mental stability. Trying to pretend that this wasn't happening, that you weren't in the strangest and most bizarre situation imaginable, was starting to wear you out. Soon you would have to face everything, and you weren't looking forward to that. 

You took a deep breath, held it for a second, and breathed out. You could put it off for a little longer. Now wasn't the time to have a breakdown. Not the time. Not the time. 

Quickly, you turned off the shower and focused on deciding what to do with your hair. 

Your boss called your name while you were in the middle of designing varied facial expressions. Without even pausing in your work, you said, "Yes sir?" to indicate that you were listening. You knew you should probably give him your full attention, but this detail needed to be completed first. 

“You're the girl that recently married Mr. Kaiba, aren't you?” 

You snapped to attention, everything else forgotten. “Sir, I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't tell anyone. I plan to prove my worth in this job, and I don't want anyone to treat me differently, especially not you—” 

“Don't worry about it, but I do have a favor to ask.” 

You were wary. If he asked for a promotion or something, well, Seto would probably fire him instead. Also, you'd learned your lesson. No more agreeing to anything without knowing the specifics. 

“I'll try to help, if I can.” 

“Great!” He dropped a pile of papers onto your desk. “Could you take these up to Mr. Kaiba?” 

You couldn't stop yourself from frowning in displeasure. “Isn't that what the interns are for?” 

“They keep getting fired. We're running out of interns, and soon, I'll have to make my own coffee. You probably won't get fired.” Your boss didn't even wait for a response to that before leaving. You simply stared at the documents. You would have to deliver the stupid papers and hope that running messages didn't become a regular thing. 

You tried not to glare too much as you carried the dumb papers into the elevator and up to the top floor. In the elevator, you glanced over them, wondering what you were carrying up to Kaiba. They seemed to be papers for Kaiba to sign to clear something or other. Well, you certainly wouldn't be doing any persuading. 

The secretary remembered you and let you walk straight into Kaiba's office. He was so absorbed in his work that he didn't even notice when you entered. You didn't want to interrupt him, and you didn't want to just drop the stuff onto his desk (honestly, there wasn't even a clear section of the desk to even drop it onto) so you turned to leave. You could just have his secretary give the papers to him. 

“What did you want?” Oh, he had noticed you. You turned to face him. He still wasn't even looking at you, but there wasn't anyone else he could have been talking to. 

You approached his desk, holding out the papers for him to take. “My boss sent me up here with these. I suspect you won't like them or he would've sent an intern.” 

He took the papers from you and looked at them. “You're right. I don't.” He grabbed the phone off his desk and dialed. A moment later, he was yelling at someone. “No, I won't sign this! It's a ridiculous idea! And why couldn't you have sent it along with someone more appropriate?!” He paused, but only briefly. “Don't tell me that bullshit! You realize that my secretary keeps track of that for me don't you?! Next time you want me to approve something then YOU should be the one up here asking!” He hung up, and for a fleeting moment, you felt pity for whoever he'd just chewed out. At the same time, you couldn't help but think that an angry Kaiba was a little bit thrilling, and you wondered if there was something wrong with you for thinking that. 

“You can go now. I'll see you at lunch.” He went back to work the moment he dismissed you. The conversation was over. Oh well, you had work to do, too. Thinking about how attractive your husband could be wasn't productive nor was it a train of thought that you should really follow. 

Kaiba was prompt in picking you up for lunch. It was a bit surprising, but you reminded yourself that he didn't become the CEO of a major corporation by being disorganized. You wondered if his secretary kept track of the time for him or if he was able to keep track of it on his own. As you considered that, you scribbled your current ideas down on a post-it so you wouldn't forget them, before standing to greet him. 

He didn't even wait for you to say anything before turning around and walking away. You supposed that he expected you to follow him, so you did. As you followed him through the building, you realized that there was something different about his appearance, but you couldn't place what it was. 

You studied him for a second. Black pants, check. Boots with weird buckles, check. Button up dress shirt... check? Did he normally wear a white button up shirt? OH! It dawned on you that he wasn't wearing a trench coat! That was incredibly odd. You knew from your glimpses into his closet that he had an obscene amount of those things, one for every day of the year practically, and he seemed to wear them nearly every day. Was he wearing one this morning? You couldn't remember. 

He looked good in simple clothes. The basic black pants and white shirt didn't distract from his build the way his trench coats did. The ridiculous billow that drew attention away from his gloriously long legs was gone, and the lack of padded shoulders called attention to how broad his own shoulders were on their own. You were so busy admiring him that you didn't realize he led you out of Kaiba Corp. until a pedestrian nearly ran you over. You muttered a quick apology before a hand grabbed your arm and you were yanked away. 

He was glaring and calling you an idiot, but you barely registered that. He was on the sidewalk! Walking! Like a normal human! 

“Where are we going?” 

“A restaurant around the corner.” 

_Yes but_ , “Why are we walking?” 

“I could call my driver, but in this traffic, that would take too long.” He was looking at you like he couldn't figure out why you were protesting. 

You looked out at the street, and sure enough, it was packed with cars. People trying to get somewhere for lunch no doubt. Then you were getting dragged along by your wrist again. It was a rather unpleasant experience, he was pulling you too roughly, but you didn't think that he realized he was hurting you. 

You wished that he would grab your hand instead. 

When you reached the restaurant, the two of you were seated almost immediately in a small table for two. The owner emerged before you'd even had a chance to read the menu. 

“Mr. Kaiba! Wonderful to see you again! Shall I have a bottle of our finest wine sent out for you?” 

“Yes, and I'll have my usual.” 

“And for you, madame?” 

Cue deer-in-the-headlights. You opened the menu rapidly, trying to find a dish that looked appealing. Then realized all the titles were in French, a language with which you had very little experience. Ooooh, 'penne' you knew that word! It basically meant pasta, and pasta was fairly straightforward. You ordered the dish, knowing that you were basically massacring the name with your horrible pronunciation. 

Was it just you or... You waited until the owner walked off before turning to Kaiba. 

“Was he just glaring at me?” 

You would have expected him to scoff at you for being paranoid, perhaps to tell you that it was a ridiculous idea. Instead, he looked thoughtfully at where the owner had disappeared. 

“He may have been.” 

He rarely said more than was necessary. It was a trait that really irritated you. You would have to learn how to ask the right questions. 

“Do you know why he would glare at me?” 

Before Kaiba could answer your question, a waitress was at the table, serving wine to both of you. You unceremoniously took a sip. It was tolerable. A little drier than you liked, but since Kaiba seemed to like bitter things, it was sweeter than you would have hoped. 

Kaiba cleared his throat, and you studied him as he appeared to be about to say something. 

“Are you enjoying your work?” 

You were surprised by his question and found yourself grinning at the way he was frowning. It was almost like he was unsure if that was the appropriate thing to ask. 

“Yes, thank you.” 

After your response, silence settled between the two of you, and you figured that it was probably your turn to ask a question. You didn't really know all that much about him so maybe it was time you started trying to get to know him. 

“Do you still duel?” 

He was clearly startled by your question. “No.” 

“Why not?” 

“Why do you want to know?” His eyebrow was raised. 

“When I was younger, I was a big fan of yours.” Not strictly true, more like you had posters of him all over your walls. He didn't need to know that part though. “I was just curious.” 

He seemed amused, and you wondered why. “I don't have the time.” 

That made sense. He did seem to dedicate a lot of time to his company. For the first few days that you'd lived with him, he'd come home at a reasonable time, but lately, he hadn't. If the gossip was true, then it was likely that coming home late was _de rigueur_ for him. 

“Do you have any hobbies outside of work?” 

“No.” 

Huh. That seemed kind of boring to you. Everyone needed something to do for fun. “So do you ever have fun?” Oh, wait, that was rude. You covered your mouth apologetically. 

He didn't respond, but you thought that the expression on his face was more or less telling you to stop prying. At least this time there was no awkward silence since your food had arrived. You began to eat your noodles, hoping that he would forget your foot-to-mouth moment. 

The meal passed in silence. Neither you nor Kaiba opted for a dessert, and soon you were outside the restaurant. Just standing there. You looked up at Kaiba, wondering why he wasn't dragging you back yet. His face was expressionless. He simply seemed to be watching as pedestrians flowed around the two of you. 

“Mokuba is always telling me to work less,” he abruptly supplied, still not looking at you. “I won't be surprised if you don't understand, but there are aspects of my job that I do enjoy.” 

Then he was off, dragging you by your wrist again, but this time you yanked your arm away from him. He stopped and looked back at you, probably wondering what the hell you were doing. You just grinned and grabbed his hand. For a moment, the two of you just stood there, you grinning at his confused eyes, and then, without another word, he began walking again. 

This time, he was holding your hand and not your wrist.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, yes I know, I'm sorry but it was unavoidable. Mokuba told me it was time for him to get back to work and the events of the next chapter really needed to be separate from this one so that's how the cookie crumbles.  
> Um, so this chapter's ending was written out about three different ways before it felt right. Initially it was sheer crack. I hope that you guys agree that it's suiting. (Or maybe you're screaming that it's about time...)

It was the weekend, Saturday, and Mokuba's last day in Domino. Tomorrow he would fly back to Tokyo. He'd spent too much time away from work, and they wanted him to come back. 

Seto was currently at work, but he already promised Mokuba that he would come home early so all three of you could go out to dinner together. You'd told them that they could go, just the two of them, and that you'd stay home to give them brother time, but Mokuba had been scandalized. 

“You're part of the family now!” he'd shouted. “Why would you stay home?!” 

Seto had nodded in agreement. 

You were still smiling from that conversation. Yeah, you knew that they were doing their best, each in his own way, to make you feel at home with them, but having them call you part of their small exclusive family made you feel warm inside. 

Except, Mokuba still didn't love you enough to let you win when you played video games. The two of you were getting in some quality gaming time as you waited for Seto to come home from work, but it was not friendly. Currently, you were yelling obscenities at the massive TV in front of you as Mokuba's character kicked the crap out of yours. 

“That's not fair! You aren't supposed to use those cheat codes! CHEATER!” 

Mokuba just laughed at your pain. “Don't be a sore loser.” 

You did your absolute best to try to stop him from completely wailing on you, but his stupid cheat code had completely cut out any pauses between his attacks. You tossed down your controller as the screen revealed Mokuba's character doing a victory dance. Your anger briefly subsided when your kitten suddenly appeared on your lap and tried to stick his face in yours. You smiled as you pet the kitten, but you were still a little put off at being beaten unfairly. 

“You know, your brother isn't the only jerk in this family.” 

“Don't be so bitter just because you lost.” Mokuba grinned at you. 

You never learned. Every single time you played a game against Mokuba, it didn't matter if it was a racing game, fighting game, or strategy game, he always cheated. 

As always, you began to whine at him. “Why are you such a cheater?” 

“You haven't noticed yet have you?” 

You stopped whining, confused. “Noticed what?” What were you supposed to notice? 

“Most of these are Kaiba Corp. games. Of course I'm going to know the most effective ways to win.” 

“What? Seriously?!” You got up and went over to look into the game case. As you read the many titles, you realized that he was right and most of them were Kaiba Corp. games. No wonder Mokuba was so much better than you were. You informed him that it didn't change anything and that he was still a cheat. 

“Maybe if you ask Seto he'll teach you some of the games' tricks too.” 

“He plays?” That was a surprise. You were under the impression that all he did was work. 

Mokuba shrugged. “Well, he does a lot of the testing for stuff himself.” 

You learned new things every day. “Where does he get the time for that?” 

“I really think he's evolved past the need for sleep.” 

You laughed at Mokuba's joke. Even though it was a little bit true, you now knew firsthand that Seto operated on way less sleep than the normal human. He'd probably trained his body to not need very much. 

Then your kitten jumped off the couch and took off running to a different part of the mansion. Kaiba was probably home. That silly kitten adored him. 

“Guess we'd better go get Seto before he starts working again, and we never get dinner.” Mokuba had noticed the kitten's dash out of the room too. 

You found Seto in the entryway with your kitten rubbing against his legs. He was trying to walk without kicking the kitten, but all the kitten wanted to do was wrap himself around Kaiba's legs. 

Even though Kaiba was the only person in the entire mansion who disliked the kitten, he was the kitten's absolute favorite person. Every single day, the moment Seto arrived at home, little Trouble would attach himself to Seto. It bothered you a little. You were the one who fed the kitten, who protected him from Seto, who gave him a home, and who did the kitten love? Seto. It was unfair. 

You picked the kitten up, saving him from getting kicked and saving Seto from tripping. You ignored the kitten's mewled protests and asked Seto if he was ready to go out to dinner. 

“I just need to change.” He paused and looked you over. “You're dressed appropriately for once.” His comment sounded like an insult, but you were fairly sure that it was a compliment. It was an undeserved one. 

“Mokuba picked this out for me.” You weren't sure how you were going to figure out what to wear with Mokuba gone. 

“I picked something for you too, Seto!” You wondered if Kaiba was going to be as lost as you when Mokuba left. Then again, he did always seem to know what to wear. He was probably just too lazy to pick anything out when he didn't have to, and you completely understood. You lived with him and knew what his closet looked like. He had more clothes than you did! His seemed to come in less of a variety, however. There were a lot of trench coats in his closet space... 

The moment Seto was out of your sight, you put your kitten back on the ground. He took off, running in the direction that Seto had gone. You sighed, and Mokuba laughed. Trouble was clearly not a good judge of who to give his love to. 

“So, will you let me fix your makeup?” 

You glared at Mokuba. “There's absolutely nothing wrong with my makeup.” 

“You're barely wearing any!” 

“Are you sure you aren't gay?” You'd been wondering about him for a few days now. He picked out your outfits when you went out, offered advice on how to do your hair, and complained that you didn't know how to use makeup effectively. 

Mokuba just laughed. “I'm sure I'm straight.” It was a testament to his easygoing nature that he wasn't offended by your question in the slightest. “I'm a photographer. It's my job to yell at the stylists when my subjects look like shit.” 

“Lovely. Well there's still nothing wrong with my makeup.” 

“You're going to regret not listening to me when you see tomorrow's pictures.” 

That triggered the alarm system in your head. “What are you talking about?” 

“You know where we're going right?” 

“No, where are we going?” Why was he looking at you like that? Had you missed some sort of memo? 

“My favorite restaurant, which also happens to be the hottest restaurant in town...” He trailed off, but you knew exactly which restaurant he was talking about. He didn't have to tell you anything else. The restaurant was a hotbed of photographers trying to catch photos of the various rich and famous who went there. It was exactly the type of restaurant that Seto Kaiba tended to avoid and the type of place where Mokuba Kaiba tended to thrive. 

“Can I stay home?” you pleaded. It was bad enough that random photos of you kept popping up on the news and all over the internet. You didn't want any clear pictures of you to be anywhere. Nobody needed to be able to easily identify you. 

Actually, you were sure that a few photos of “you” weren't even you. There had been a photo yesterday of “you” in some ice cream shop downtown that you hadn't even known existed. 

“No.” Great, Kaiba was back. There was no arguing with him either. 

You were going to try to be persuasive anyway. “You don't really want to go to such a crowded restaurant do you?” 

“No, but Mokuba loves it.” You normally thought it was cute how well the two of them got along, but tonight you were unhappy about it. 

“Oh don't be like that!” Mokuba linked his arm in yours and started to drag you toward the garage. “Look, I'll let you sit in the front of the car with Seto!” 

“How does that make anything better?” Sometimes you didn't understand his logic. 

\-----

The restaurant was crowded and there were photographers everywhere. Every single photographer seemed to focus on the Kaiba brothers the moment they arrived. It was incredibly overwhelming. All the questions shouted, and all the flashes going off in your face. You'd never had to deal with anything like it before. The two brothers seemed used to it. Seto took your hand and led you through everything, and on your other side, Mokuba was waving at random people (or at least, they seemed random to you). 

You just hoped that you didn't look too horrible in any of the photos. 

Dinner wasn't a quiet affair either. People who knew the brothers kept coming over to your table to greet them. It made it impossible to actually have a conversation with either of them, and you wondered why Mokuba had wanted to eat there, of all places, on his last night in Domino. 

You waited until the ride home to ask Mokuba about it. 

“I wanted to show off my new sister!” 

You turned around in your seat so you could stare at him. “You're so full of it, Mokuba.” 

He laughed. “Ok, I really just like getting Seto to go there.” 

That sounded more like what you knew of Mokuba, but you were still confused. Why would he want to force Seto to go to that place? You decided to drop the subject. You still had a lot to learn about the two brothers. 

\-----

Once Kaiba pulled his car into the garage, Mokuba ran off, claiming that he needed to call up a friend. It was just you and Seto at that point. 

“Do you play chess?” Seto asked the moment the two of you entered his mansion. 

“Yes?” You wondered why this was coming up. 

“We should play a game.” It was phrased like a suggestion, but you knew what he really meant. He meant, 'We are going to play a game.' 

“Don't you have work?” It was barely 11pm. You were expecting him to make a beeline for his home office for a few hours. 

He smirked at you. “There's a chess set in my office.” 

Your jaw dropped. He was seriously going to play a game of chess and work at the same time! Then again, he'd probably still beat you with ease. You followed behind him as he led you into his office. He paused at an intercom just long enough to demand that the staff carry tea up. He was still constantly surprising you. He hadn't even asked you if you wanted tea. 

In the study, Seto set up a chess board on his desk while you giggled to yourself. He had a crystal duel monsters chess set. It was unexpected yet not surprising in the slightest. Then you realized that he was setting up the black pieces on your side of the board. 

“What if I want to be white?” 

He looked at you, sizing you up. “ **Did** you want to be white?” 

You didn't really care either way, but the white pieces were the ones that moved first so you would have expected him to let you be white. Then again, the white pieces were the ones with the Blue Eyes on them and you still saw evidence of his Blue Eyes obsession throughout the mansion. It reminded you of his status as the only known owner of those cards. 

“Do you still have your Blue Eyes cards? I know you said you don't duel anymore...” 

“Of course.” He moved one of his pieces. “Your turn.” 

You focused on the game. It was going to take all your concentration to keep him from completely humiliating you. It was a wasted effort. After a few turns, Mokuba came into the study with sake, convinced both of you to drink, and you completely botched the game. You knew you were a little bit drunk, you really did, and you knew that some of the moves you were attempting broke the rules of the game. It didn't matter. You tried to cheat anyway. 

The chess game ended up dissolving into absolute chaos. You'd try to illegally move a piece, Seto would snap at you that you couldn't do that, and Mokuba would side with you and tell Seto to chill. Occasionally you'd also just grab one of Seto's pieces off the board and declare that a higher power smote it. Kaiba eventually drew the line when you tried pulling that move on his queen. He declared the game over and sent both you and Mokuba to bed. 

Both of you protested and got sent to bed anyway. 

\-----

The next day you ended up sleeping in and woke up after Mokuba had already left. When you wandered into your bathroom, you discovered a picture taped to the mirror. There was a post-it stuck over the photo. The post-it read: _I knew you'd look washed out. MK_

You pulled the post-it off the photo and found yourself looking at a picture from last night. It was a photo of Seto looking irritated, and you looking scared. Mokuba was right, you did look washed out, but that didn't really bother you. What you really noticed about the picture was that it had captured Seto while he was holding your hand. With your hand connected to Seto's like that, you thought that maybe you looked like you belonged with him.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know that I actually started writing this fic about ten years ago? The site that this was first posted on no longer exists in fact. So at some point, you'll notice the style will shift more toward my current style than it is now. 
> 
> Original author's notes:  
> I know what you guys are thinking. Yes, this fic moves with all the speed of a snail on NyQuil.  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter though. I like a lot of it, but I'm not so happy with other parts of it. It's a mixed basket. xD

The mansion was empty, quiet, and lonely without Mokuba. 

You'd been staying in the mansion for a while now, but you never noticed just how big it was before today. Before today, you always came back to find Mokuba bouncing around the mansion. As long as it was after noon, he was full of energy and ready to keep you distracted and busy. In fact, you hadn't even realized that he'd been keeping your mind off of everything until now. 

Now he was back in Tokyo, and you were alone. 

No, that was melodramatic. There were plenty of maids around, keeping themselves out of your way and hidden from view. 

Playing games wasn't the same without the cheating little scamp. He'd been gone for less than twenty-four hours, and you already missed him. It didn't help that Kai—Seto was at work and your best friend wasn't picking up her phone. Not that you didn't deserve the silent treatment from her. You really hadn't been talking to her very much lately. 

In the silence of the mansion, you even resorted to trying to play with your kitten for a while. He'd tolerated you for about ten minutes before eventually meowing at you in irritation and running off to find somewhere else to relax. 

It was nearly time for dinner, and you really didn't want to eat alone at that large table. 

Then you had a brilliant idea (if you did say so yourself). If Seto wouldn't be home for dinner, why not take dinner to his office? He wasn't a robot. He needed to eat too. 

So you skipped off to ask the cook if it would be possible to pack up dinner for two. 

That card key that you'd stolen from Mokuba ended up being useful yet again. Since you were now an employee, you could normally get into the building, but only during normal working hours. Technically the building was closed right now, but with Mokuba's access card, you could sneak in without having to deal with security. Mokuba was never ever getting it back. Ever. 

You hummed a little theme song to yourself as you took the private elevator up to Kaiba's office. 

Only to find yourself in an empty room. Had he gone home? Had you missed him on your way here? 

Except the lights were still on, and his desk was covered in papers. Surely he wouldn't just leave stuff lying around like this? A quick walk over to his desk confirmed that his computer was on and running. So where was— 

“What are you doing?” 

You whirled around to face him, feeling like a kid who'd gotten their hand caught in the cookie jar. You held up the basket of food like a defense or perhaps as an excuse. “I brought dinner!” 

“Why?” The word tumbled out of his mouth like a reflex. He seemed genuinely mystified about your reasoning for bringing him food. 

“Well...” You shuffled from foot to foot, uncomfortable under his gaze. “I thought you probably needed to eat, and your dining room is too big for me to eat in by myself...” You finally had to look away from him. You normally tried your best to maintain eye contact with Kaiba, and he seemed to appreciate it, but this was just too embarrassing. Maybe this had all been a bad idea. 

“You haven't eaten yet?” 

You shook your head. All you could think was that this was such a bad idea, and he probably thought that you were being pushy. 

“Pull up a chair.” 

You grinned as he settled himself back into his desk. He was going to eat with you! Then you looked at his desk. “Where should I put the food?” 

He cleared a small space, and you began to unpack the basket. You enthusiastically told him exactly what the cook had packed for both of you. The cook knew exactly what Seto liked and had been careful not to pack anything he disliked. With this knowledge, you were able to hand him a plate of food, confident that he liked everything on it. 

He muttered an unsure 'thanks' and put the plate next to the work he was doing. You sat back with your own food and watched him for a moment before commenting on it. “You know, when people are given food, they usually eat it.” 

He continued working. “I'll get to it.” 

“It'll get cold.” You felt like you were chiding a child. The idea of Seto Kaiba as a child brought a smile to your face. He had probably been a cute little kid. 

He continued to ignore his food, so you tried another approach. “So the great Seto Kaiba can't multitask? I would've expected you to be able to eat and work at the same time.” 

He glared at you for a moment before picking up the plate and eating some of his food. You couldn't stop your giggles. It _really_ was like watching a child. 

He didn't talk to you at all, but it was still nice to eat in his company. It was better, by far, than sitting alone at that large table in the mansion. 

So the next day, you decided to bring dinner to him again. By the end of the week, he started expecting you around dinner time. Neither of you really talked very much, but you still felt like you were getting to know him a little. 

Then, on Friday, he surprised you by telling you not to come by his office for dinner. He told you he would probably be home by then. He left out details so you had no idea why he would be home so early. 

You asked the cook to hold off on dinner until Seto came back. You didn't want to eat alone. 

He ended up getting home around seven in the afternoon. You hadn't expected him so soon, and you were reading on your shared bed. You wouldn't have even known that he was home if he hadn't come straight up to the room. He walked into the room and threw his briefcase onto the bed next to you. Then, without a word, he went straight into his closet. You put down your book and crawled to sit at the edge of the bed. This was erratic behavior, even for him. 

He emerged from the closet and hung a garment bag from the door. 

Your curiosity got the best of you. “What are you doing?” 

“Grabbing my bags.” 

“Your bags? Did I miss a memo?” You weren't sure how you hadn't noticed the packed bag in the closet. It was a rather large closet but still... 

“I have a business meeting in Tokyo tomorrow. I'm leaving tonight.” 

You murmured a soft, 'oh,' and wondered why nobody had told you about this. You wanted to ask him why he hadn't mentioned it before, but a question like that seemed inappropriate now. “When will you be back?” 

“Tomorrow night.” 

So you'd be spending tonight and tomorrow, essentially alone in his home. Great. As if the place wasn't already too big and intimidating. You wished that he would have warned you sooner. 

_'Why didn't he?'_ you wondered as you watched him leave. Did he think that you didn't need to know? That you wouldn't care? 

You'd started feeling closer to him this past week, but apparently the feeling was not reciprocated. He hadn't even said goodbye. 

Well, you weren't going to stay in this massive place all alone. You knew where Seto kept his car keys, and you grabbed a pair at random, not really caring which car they belonged to. In the garage you pressed the car's alarm so you could figure out which one it was. It happened to be a red, two-door, something-or-other at the other side of the garage. You turned off the alarm and slid into the car. 

Your getaway was wrecked by the closed gate at the entrance of the mansion. You had to roll down a window to talk to one of the guards. 

“Sorry Mrs. Kaiba, but you shouldn't be leaving the estate this late at night.” 

_Well, damn that Seto Kaiba._ “You're under orders to keep me here?” 

“Yes, ma'am. The streets aren't safe at night.” 

You almost backed down. This wasn't an argument you wanted to have, and you didn't think you could win unless you rammed the gate. Then you looked at the mansion in your rear-view mirror. It was brightly lit, making it seem like the rooms could all be occupied, but you knew the truth. Most of the rooms were empty, and there were very few people employed to work at night. There was no way you were staying there alone. 

“I need tampons,” you bluntly told the man. “Unless you'd like to buy them for me, you need to let me through that gate now.” 

It was a lie, but he'd get over it. 

The guards reluctantly opened the gate for you. You thanked them with a smile and sped off towards downtown Domino. It was time for a stop at your favorite restaurant. The depressed mood you were in demanded sweets. 

You pulled into a parking space at random and ignored all the stares that your car was getting. Then, once you were in the cafe, you smiled and breathed in the smell of cakes and coffee. You felt a little better already. 

You ordered a large tiramisu and two espressos to go. You were going to bring it all over to your bestfriend's home in the hopes that she would forgive you. You really needed someone to talk to. You paid in cash since you didn't have an ID to match your new credit card yet and carried your food out to the car. 

It was easy enough to find parking near your bestie's apartment so you quickly found yourself in front of her door. You knocked once and waited. Nothing. So you rang the doorbell. Still nothing. 

Finally you gave up and dug out your keys. You'd had keys to her apartment for ages, and they were useful in situations like this. Once inside, you closed and locked the door behind you before making your way over to her little kitchen area. You put down the food on the table and turned on a light. Her apartment was clean. Normally she left things casually lying around. 

You pulled out your cell phone and called her. She ignored your call, which wasn't unexpected. You didn't bother leaving a message, opting to text her instead. 

_I showed up at your house with coffee and tiramisu as an apology for being a jerkface. Where are you?_

Then you grabbed a fork from her drawers and dug into the tiramisu. No sense in waiting for her to show up. It could be a while. Luckily, you only had to wait ten minutes before your phone rang. 

“Hello?” 

“Tiramisu?! I wish I was there to eat it!” 

You grinned, knowing that tiramisu was her absolute favorite. It was exactly why you'd ordered it. “Where are you?” 

“WELL, if you'd been answering any of your calls lately, you'd know exactly where I am.” Apparently your apology was only effective if she was actually there to eat the tiramisu with you. 

“Why, what's up?” 

“I'm in Kyoto visiting my parents. My mother is sick so I took a week off to come see her.” 

Now you really felt horrible. “I'm sorry. Is she—” 

“Yeah she's fine. She's already feeling well enough to nag me about not being married.” 

You laughed. You knew her mother kept asking her when she was going to see grandchildren. Heck, she'd even asked you when you were going to settle down. “Well, tell her I said to get better soon then.” 

“Will do. Are you going to start answering your calls now?” 

“Yeah. I'm really sorry. It's just been so crazy.” 

You heard a chuckle on the other line. “I'd imagine. Look I'll call you back later ok? I want to hear all about everything that's going on!” 

“Yeah, ok. Bye.” 

“Later!” Then she hung up on you. 

You looked around at your empty apartment. It seemed like everyone had somewhere to be this weekend except you. Maybe you should finally give in and call your own mother. Except, based on all the disapproval in her voicemails, you were fairly sure that she'd just yell at you. After all, that was all she'd ever done, yell and tell you what a disappointment you were. 

No, you couldn't deal with that right now. With two empty homes and everyone in another city, you really couldn't deal with your mother. 

You decided to spend the night in your friend's apartment. It was smaller than the mansion by far and not nearly as lonely. It didn't stop you from having vague nightmares that you couldn't remember. When you woke up the next morning you felt like crap. 

Not that it mattered. There wasn't anyone around to see you. 

You got dressed and made yourself look at least halfway presentably anyway. You planned on spending the entire day wandering around the various museums and there was no telling where a camera would pop up. 

The day ended up being uneventful, but you enjoyed it. It was nice looking at all the artwork, and after that, you wandered around the park just watching the people. Despite how tranquil it was, you ended up cutting your day short from sheer exhaustion. Since you hadn't been able to sleep well the night before, you were really tired. Thankfully the guards at the gate recognized you or the car you were in and let you onto the mansion's premises without any problems. 

The moment you were in your room, you simply stripped off your clothes and fell onto the bed. You were asleep almost instantly. 

Later that night, when you woke up to feel flesh against your own, you freaked out and tried to jump out of bed. The pair of arms wrapped around you kept you firmly in place. You were at least coherent enough this time to figure out who the arms wrapped around you belonged to, but that didn't make it any better. 

“What are you doing?” His voice was gruff, and you were sure that you'd just woken him up. 

“I was just going to get up.” 

He pulled you closer, and you found yourself pinned against his bare chest. Not an unpleasant place to be, which was exactly why you didn't want to be there. “Not to put clothes on I hope.” 

“What if I were?” 

“I like the view I came home to. Go back to sleep.” You knew that it was pointless arguing with him. 

It wasn't like you didn't enjoy the position you were in. You could feel his lean muscles, and you had to stop yourself from running your hands along his body. It was off limits. Getting more involved with him just seemed like a bad idea. As long as you were 'stuck' here though, you might as well be comfortable. So you gave in and curled into his body. 

Not being alone was nice.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I skipped a weekend and then am getting this up so late this weekend. ): Last weekend I was extremely busy, and yesterday was also a busy day as well. This chapter needed a lot of editing and work done to it, so it had to wait until I had time to really sit down with it. The next chapter is going to need some editing as well. 
> 
> Original author's notes:
> 
> Mondays suck. Have a dose of Daydreamer's Nightmare! ♥ (Though I'm not sure how much you guys'll like me after this chapter. >.> There's a little bit of a breakdown and some not so healthy behavior.)  
>   
> I know there's various different background stories for Kaiba in the different versions of the manga/anime and for this fic I'm using the one where his mother dies giving birth to Mokuba (or shortly after, something like that) and I'm not entirely sure where that specific version comes from, but I tend to use it.  
>   
> (You can skip this paragraph if you don't care to read my psychoanalysis of Kaiba. Or read it after the chapter. ;D ) I've always been fascinated with how that affects his relationship with Mokuba. I mean, his mother died giving birth to Mokuba, and any five year old would have blamed their sibling. (Actually I think it's canon that he blamed Mokuba but I'm not sure so don't quote me.) Until their father died and he realized that Mokuba was the only one he had, I think he was probably harsh on Mokuba. Subconsciously, I think he'll always be trying to make up for those early years of Mokuba's life and I think that reinforces his belief that, as an older brother, his number one priority is to protect and provide for Mokuba. Of course that's why he ends up throwing everything he has into Kaiba Corp. The company is a way to provide for Mokuba, his standing as CEO protects Mokuba. It was never his number one priority, it was simply the best way he could see to fulfill his number one priority. So in this fic, even though he doesn't need to take care of Mokuba anymore, he still puts everything he has into the company. At this point though, it's because it's habit. Running the company is really the only thing he has, Mokuba doesn't need him the same way anymore. Or course Kaiba Corp. is also his pride. He completely restructured the company and managed to turn it into the most successful gaming company and it's a physical representation of everything he's achieved. But I still feel like everything was done for Mokuba. After all, Kaiba always reached his maximum potential in the show whenever he was trying to protect Mokuba. He might be an asshole who doesn't give a damn about anyone but Mokuba, but he's still a protector, and he'll protect what's 'his' (eg, his brother and his company).  
>   
> Anyway, that was a lot, sorry, but I wanted to explain why I chose the backstory I did. To me it's always interesting how the various different backgrounds for Kaiba can impact his character (or maybe just the way I perceive it) in different ways. His mother dying in childbirth just happens to really strengthen his protectiveness and that's kind of important to this fic's dynamics.

_Seto was hovering above you and his blue eyes seemed to be looking into your head and right at all your thoughts. It was difficult to maintain eye contact with such an intense gaze. His hands were positioned next to your head, both holding him up and caging you in. No matter where you looked, he was the only thing you could see._

_You hesitantly reached a hand up and ran it through his hair, amazed at how soft it was.”I'm ready.”_

_Then one of his hands was sliding down your body, and he was positioning himself at your entrance. He completely sheathed himself in one long, hard, thrust._

_You moaned and arched toward him as he began to set the pace. Soon your hips were working in unison with his own as you both worked towards climax._  


You woke up sweaty and hopelessly entangled in the sheets. A quick scan of the room told you that you were thankfully alone. You didn't need Seto to get suspicious of your flushed face and start asking questions about your dreams. Especially not when your dreams were starting to feature him in various states of undress. 

You blushed as you thought of what he'd been doing in your dreams. You would definitely need to take a cold shower. 

_'That's not all you need,'_ a voice in your head whispered. You ignored it. Sure you could easily have sex with Seto. He was your husband, and something told you that he wouldn't be opposed to the idea, but you didn't need sex to tangle up your situation more. You were already confused and stuck in a complicated situation. There was no need to complicate your life further. 

You looked at the clock. It was almost ten in the morning so Kaiba was almost certainly at work. It was a Sunday and most of the staff in the mansion had weekends off, Kaiba Corp. was even officially closed on weekends, but that didn't stop him from working. Kaiba worked every single day of the week. At least he tended to come back home earlier on weekends. He'd most likely be back in time for dinner so you wouldn't have to worry about taking dinner to him today. 

After your shower, you opened up the balcony doors and stepped outside. It was a nice sunny day. A perfect day to spend sitting at the pool with a good book. You didn't have anything that you were currently reading, but that wouldn't be a problem. Kaiba had a sizable library, and you could just borrow a book from him.  


“Miss?” A maid had come out to where you were sunning yourself on the edge of Kaiba's pool. “There's a woman at the gate claiming to be your mother.” 

“My mother?” You really should have expected her to show up. Honestly, for the past few years you'd managed to avoid seeing her simply because Domino was 'too far away,' and she couldn't be bothered to travel out this far to show how disgusted she was with your life choices. Apparently you'd screwed up so badly this time that she'd actually come out to Domino to finally yell at you. Well, you weren't going to make it easy for her. 

“Send her away. Even if she really is my mother, I don't want to see her.” 

“Right away, miss.” 

Barely an hour later, Kaiba was calling you on your cell. 

“Yes?” 

“Your mother is here, yelling at my security.” He sounded irritated and stressed. You could only imagine the chaos that your mother had caused, and you half regretted sending her away. 

“How do you even know she's my mother?” 

“I did a background check on you during your application process, and she has ID.” 

You groaned. “She would come fully prepared. Can't you, I dunno, get rid of her?” 

“You don't want to see your mother?” 

“Not at all. She's only going to yell at me.” 

“Stop being a brat. At least you have a mother.” He hung up on you, and you instantly felt a little bit ashamed. You'd completely forgotten that his parents had died when he was young. Not that he ever mentioned that to you. You'd read it in a magazine when you were a teen. 

Knowing Kaiba, he wasn't going to leave work early to escort your mother here, he wouldn't keep her there, and if he'd wanted you to pick her up, then he would have said so himself. He was most likely telling the guards to let your mother onto the estate when she arrived, which meant you had a limited amount of time to hide. 

The idea of seeing if the Kaiba Mansion had an attic to hide in was very appealing. At the very least, you should probably change into something other than your bathing suit. If your mother caught you lying around in the bathing suit, she would probably start listing all the other, better, things you could be doing with your time. 

It just made you want to hide somewhere she would never ever find you, but you had to think about it logically. Even if you did hide, you would only be postponing the inevitable lecture. If your mother had actually bothered to come out this far to yell at you, then she wasn't going home until she'd yelled at you. You wondered how she was going to treat Kaiba. Sure he wasn't exactly the sort of man that she'd always wanted you to marry, but at least he was wealthy right? She'd give him points for that if nothing else. Hiding seemed like a smart idea. If you managed to stay hidden until Seto got back then you could use him as a buffer. 

She wouldn't want to give Seto Kaiba a bad impression, hopefully. 

So you got dressed, grabbed your laptop and the book you'd been reading, and discreetly hid in the garage. While your mother turned the mansion upside down and looked through closets and under beds, you would be sitting comfortably (more or less) in a car. 

In the garage, you distracted yourself with the book and your laptop for a few hours until your phone began vibrating. It read 'Seto Kaiba' and you wondered if he was home. 

“Hello?” you answered quietly, just in case anyone was nearby. 

“Where the hell are you?!” 

If he was angry that he couldn't find you, then he was probably home from work. It wouldn't hurt to check though. “Where are you? I'll come to you.” You also weren't going to reveal your very successful hiding spot. 

“Get to the dining room. Now.” 

Wow, he was more than a little bit angry. You wondered how long he'd been looking for you before he actually bothered calling. Well, it was a bit late to go back now. You had to get to the dining room as soon as possible and face your fate. 

Your fate somehow turned into a woman, who looked oddly like your mother, hugging you excitedly. As much as this woman looked like your mother, there was simply no way she could be your mother. Your mother hadn't hugged you since you were in elementary school. 

“Oh sweetie! I've missed you so much!” 

Yep, that woman was totally not your mother. You stood completely still until she pulled away. She grabbed your hand and seemed to be staring at it. 

“Sweetheart, why aren't you wearing your ring?” 

What was she talking about? “Ring?” 

“Yes! Your wedding ring!” 

Oh right, in theory you should have one of those. You looked for your 'husband' hoping that he would save you from having to explain, but he was sitting at the table looking fairly displeased. Well, he wouldn't be rescuing you anytime soon. “I don't have a ring.” 

The woman-who-might-be-your-mother sighed. “This is why you should have married a lawyer. They'd have the decency to give you a ring.” **Now** she was starting to act like your mother. That was exactly like the sort of thing she would say. 

“Too late for that now.” You pulled away from her and took your seat next to Seto at the table. He was glaring at you and not even bothering to hide his hostility, but you wanted to wait until your mother was gone to actually figure out exactly why he was angry. 

“Where have you been all day? I've been looking for you.” You mother was sitting across from you, and you wished that you could make her sit all the way at the other end of the long dining table. 

“Oh I was just sitting around reading.” You tried to stay vague and wondered when she was going to finally get to the point. Maybe she really wouldn't yell at you with Seto nearby. 

She seemed to lapse into a dissatisfied silence for the duration of dinner. Dinner was a quiet and awkward affair. Seto was clearly angry and unwilling to talk to anyone, and you didn't want to talk to your mother. 

After dinner was over, your mother demanded that you show her around and you unwillingly agreed. This turned out to be a dumb decision on your part and your mother cornered you in the nearest room. 

“I hope you don't spend all your time just _sitting around_.” 

You could tell that she had been waiting to say that and finally couldn't keep it in. “No, I've got a job in character design at Kaiba Corp. right now. It's a pretty good job and I've—” 

“Kaiba Corp? I suppose you got that job from your new husband,” she commented as if you wouldn't have been able to get it otherwise. You tried to explain that you were more than qualified for the job but she continued to rant. “You wouldn't let me set you up with any respectable men for dates, but you just married Seto Kaiba on a whim?! Was it for a job? Is that why you did it?” 

You tried to protest but your mother wouldn't let you get a single word in. 

“I've been reading the papers, I know what's been going on. Seto Kaiba put out an ad for a wife and you got the job.” Her voice continued to rise in volume. “If you were really getting that desperate, you should have come home! We could have set you up with one of your father's colleagues! You could go to law school and actually do something with your life! As your mother, I demand that you get a divorce!” 

“No!” You'd finally snapped. “I don't have to listen to you anymore!” 

“Is that why you're whoring yourself out? To get away from me?! All I've ever wanted is for you to actually do something with your life. It's not too late!” 

You should have been immune to this by now. She always insulted everything you did. If it wasn't going to help you become a successful lawyer so you could take over your father's firm, then it was a waste of time. When you'd gone to college and majored in graphic design and computer sciences, she'd told you that you were wasting your life away. She'd claimed that you would amount to nothing. You should be used to her insults by now, but it didn't stop them from hurting, and it didn't stop your eyes from watering. 

“I am **not** wasting my life,” you whispered. You repeated it again, louder and stronger. “I am NOT wasting my life!” 

“You're so stupid that you can't even see that you're ruining your life?! How did I give birth to a child like you!” 

It was just like college all over again, and even though you'd long since given up on the idea of making her proud of you, it still hurt. You accepted that there was nothing you could do to please her, but you just wished that she would see everything you'd accomplished. When she'd stopped paying for your tuition, you'd taken out loans and found a part-time job. You managed to find a job after you'd graduated, and you'd worked your way up the ladder. You'd supported yourself and paid off your loans without anyone's help. But to her, you would always be a failure. 

You backed away from her until you felt your back run into a wall. You leaned on the wall, feeling so small and insignificant. “I'm sorry.” You slid down the wall until you were sitting on the floor and curled up into a ball. 

“You're so useless!” 

“What is going on here?!” 

That was the last thing you needed. You didn't want Seto seeing you like this. You didn't want this to affect his opinion of you! Just the thought of that was enough to send you over the edge and tears began falling down your face. You covered your face with your arms, but it was probably too late. Now he knew how weak you were. 

“This is none of your business, Mr. Kaiba.” 

“You are in _my_ home, yelling at _my_ wife, and you presume to tell me that it's none of my business?! Your presence is no longer welcome here. Leave now before I have you forcibly removed.” 

“She's my daughter! I won't let you just kick me out!” 

“You will leave even if I have to remove you myself, and if it comes to that, I guarantee that I won't be gentle.” His voice was sheer ice, but it still warmed your heart. He was kicking her out. Your father had always sided with your mother, and you assumed that Seto would too. He wasn't, and it was an amazing feeling. 

“This isn't the end!” You heard a door slam, and you hoped that meant that she was leaving. Then you heard Seto calling security and telling them to make sure that your mother was removed from the premises. It was a relief to know that she was finally gone. 

You felt an arm snake under your knees and another one wrap around your back. You cried out in surprise as you were suddenly lifted bridal style. Your eyes met Seto's for a second before you re-covered your face with your hands. Then he was carrying you somewhere, and you wanted to say something. You wanted to defend yourself but you couldn't. 

He carried you into your room and kicked the door shut behind him. He placed you gently on the bed and removed his tie before sitting next to you. As he reclined against the pillows, he pulled you toward him and you ended up burying your face into his chest. The two of you simply sat in silence as you sobbed into his shirt. The smell of his cologne and the feel of his hand on your back were comforting, and you were able to quickly rein in your tears. 

He didn't speak until you stopped crying. “My mother died giving birth to Mokuba when I was five. I don't remember very much about her. I don't even have anything to remember her by.” 

Your head snapped up, and you looked up at him, shocked that he was telling you something so personal. He was looking to the side, away from you, and you realized that it was a difficult subject for him. Not knowing what to say, you simply stayed quiet. 

“When you told me that you didn't want to see your mother, I thought you were being dramatic. I was disgusted with you because I thought that you were one of those people who took their parents for granted. I didn't realize how... _negative_ your relationship with your mother was.” He paused and closed his eyes. It was obvious just how difficult it was for him to say those words, and you were fairly sure that he was apologizing for making you deal with your mother even after you objected. 

You reached up and placed a hand on his face. You turned his face slightly so he was looking at you and waited for him to open his eyes. You were sure that your face was tear-stained and your eyes were bloodshot, but you wanted him to look at you. He finally opened his eyes and you stared right into them. “It's not your fault.” You pulled yourself up and kissed him gently. 

You'd clearly caught him by surprise, but he was quick to respond. The arm wrapped around you tightened and his other hand found its way to the back of your head. When you pulled away, his lips followed yours and dragged you into another kiss. 

You gasped and both your hands ended up clenching the front of his shirt. Kissing him felt like finally getting a drink of water after being stuck in the desert, and you didn't want to stop. You adjusted your body so that you were straddling his lap as you kissed him. 

The man beneath you had accomplished more during the thirty-three years of his life than most people could accomplish during the entire span of their life. Even when compared to the men that your mother was always trying to get you to marry, Seto was clearly the most intelligent and most accomplished. You began to unbutton his shirt. There was no way a man like Seto would ever be kissing you if you were as worthless as your mother thought. She had to be wrong. One of his hands slid underneath your shirt and began to rub circles on your bare skin, and you knew that she had to be wrong. 

His shirt was completely unbuttoned and you kissed your way down to his collarbones. Your hands slid across the muscles of his chest and stomach and down to his belt. He was gorgeous. He was intelligent. He'd overcome everything to come out on top of the world. If you were so stupid, then why would he be with you right now? You managed to undo his belt and pants but found yourself flipped onto your back before you could shove them off. 

He was on top now. His deep blue eyes were dark with lust as he tugged your shirt over your head. He _wanted_ you. **He** wanted **you**. As his hand reached under your body to unhook your bra, you pulled his head back down for another kiss. You gasped as your bra was removed and a hand found its way to your breast. Your arm wrapped around him and your nails scratched down his back. 

He reached for your hands and pinned them to the bed. He loomed over you for a moment, slightly panting. "I think we should stop." 

You stared up at him, letting the words sink in. You felt yourself sink back into the bed and into yourself. Not wanting to cry in front of him again, you struggled, trying to get free. 

He didn't want you.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first half of this chapter was deleted and rewritten from scratch, but I hope that there's not too big of a difference in the writing style. Or if there is, I hope it isn't distracting. 
> 
> Otherwise, enjoy! Weekly updates should pick up again. :)

As you struggled against Kaiba’s grip, you put your entire weight into pulling away from him. He was too strong for you and kept you pinned to the bed. “Let me go!” you shouted, trying to keep yourself from breaking down. 

He stayed quiet and made no move to release you. 

“You can’t just…” You weren’t able to finish your thought before you were crying again. 

Kaiba sighed. “You’re not thinking straight.” He pulled away, but when you tried to get out of the bed, he pulled you into a hug. He held your head against his chest as he rubbed your back. 

“Let me go!” you sobbed. “Don’t pretend to want me!” You tried to pull away from him, but Kaiba wouldn’t let you go. 

Kaiba sighed, saying your name. When you ignored him, he repeated it, sounding angry this time. You refused to look at him. He released his hold on you, but then he grabbed your chin, forcing you to look up. 

“If I didn’t want you, you would be gone. Never doubt that.” 

You just stared at him, snot running down your face, sure that you were a mess. 

“You’re the one who wants to leave,” he reminded you.

He was right about that. He kept you around, despite your many attempts to either divorce him or annul the marriage. “I’m sorry I threw myself at you.” 

He growled, and you tried to pull away from him again. He kept you pinned to the bed. Then he reached for your hand and grabbed it, pulling it down to his crotch. 

“I’m a man, and I’m attracted to you,” he said as your hand rubbed against his erection. “But I’m also your husband, and that means it’s my job to protect you even from yourself.” 

He released his hold on your hand, and you pulled it away, blushing. You weren’t sure what to say to that. He pulled away and reached for a tissue box on the nightstand. When he offered the box to you, you took a tissue and tried to blow your nose without looking like too much of a mess. He watched as you cleaned off your face, and you felt a little self-conscious. 

“I’m going to wash my face,” you announced before crawling out of bed and heading for the bathroom.

In the bathroom, you cleaned off your face and brushed your teeth. You were thirsty and tired and ready to curl up and sleep. At the same time, you felt like such an idiot. You had thrown yourself at Kaiba, and then you had a meltdown when he rejected you. This was so embarrassing. You wondered how long you would have to stay in the bathroom to ensure that he was either gone or asleep by the time you emerged. 

As if he knew what you were thinking, Kaiba knocked on the door and called out your name. 

You opened the door, looking down at his feet. The two of you stood there for a moment, neither of you speaking. Then he said, “I think it’s time for bed.” 

You nodded, waiting for him to move out of your way. He didn’t. Instead he wrapped an arm around your back and then lifted your legs out from under you, picking you up. Your arms wrapped around his neck, and you looked up, making eye-contact. He was frowning down at you. He carried you to bed, setting you down before getting into the bed next to you. 

He hit the switch to turn off the lights, and then he pulled you against his body, spooning you. “If you want to throw yourself at me tomorrow, I won’t push you away.” 

You sighed, relaxing back into his body. He might just be saying that, but for tonight, you would take what comfort you could get. Your eyes hurt, and once they were shut, it wasn’t long before you fell asleep. 

The next morning, when you woke up, you were alone in the bed. You could hear the shower running in the bathroom and assumed that Kaiba was already getting ready for the day. As you waited for him to finish, you picked out what you were going to wear for the day. The embarrassment from last night lingered, and you hoped that you wouldn’t have to say much to your husband this morning.

Kaiba emerged from the bathroom, and you barely glanced his way as you walked toward the bathroom. “I'm going to shower and get ready.” You tried to close the door behind you but a firm grip on the edge stopped it from moving. You looked up at Kaiba, and he seemed to be dissecting you and trying to figure something out. After a long silence, he stepped back and out of the door's way. Something seemed to be puzzling him, but he didn't say anything, and you closed the door while you had the opportunity.

By the time you emerged from the bathroom Kaiba was nowhere to be seen so you dressed and went down to the kitchen. While you were eating breakfast, Kaiba walked into the kitchen and dropped some mail onto the table.

“That came for you yesterday. Be ready to leave for work in ten minutes.” Then he was gone.  
You looked down at the mail. It was the first piece of mail that you'd actually received since moving into the mansion. Most of your mail was probably still getting delivered to your apartment, and you were going to have to change that soon. The problem was that you didn't actually know the mansion's address. You were going to have to keep the envelope so that you wouldn't have to go through the awkwardness of asking Kaiba. Of course, if you really needed to, you could probably just fill out 'Kaiba Mansion' on any paperwork. Everyone certainly knew where it was.  
You opened the envelope, wondering exactly what would have reached you here and discovered your brand new license. It even had your new last name and address on it. You weren't going to need the envelope after all.

The 'Kaiba' where your former last name used to be made this entire debacle official. It had been official from day one of course, but the new license really made everything come crashing through. You were a Kaiba now. You were part of the Kaiba family.

You didn't even really know what that meant. Being part of your old family had meant stuffy holiday dinners with all your father's associates and their families. It had meant that you got everything you wanted for your birthday, provided that you actually told someone what you wanted and your parents didn't have to actually think about your interests. It had meant that you constantly needed to be the top of your class academically and that you had to join clubs that would help you get ahead. It had meant barely ever seeing your father and only seeing your mother at dinner where she'd make sure that your life was going exactly the way she wanted. You were only a part of that family for as long as you allowed your mother to control every single aspect of your life.  
It had been a while since you'd really been a member of that family and now you were suddenly a member of the Kaiba family without knowing what that really meant.

“Are you ready?” Kaiba's demanding voice cut through your thoughts.

“I'm sorry. I completely spaced out.” You stood up. “I'll go grab my stuff now.”

He nodded. “I want to get to work as quickly as possible.”

Well, he wasn't yelling at you. In fact, he'd grabbed a muffin and was sitting down to wait for you. He wanted you to hurry but wasn't going to rush you. It was nice.

The Kaiba family might not be perfect, but it was looking more and more appealing with every single day. You weren't entirely sure about Seto, his feelings were a mystery, but you wanted to get to know him better. Despite everything, you still hadn't forgotten that he'd stood between you and your mother. He could have stayed in his office and worked, ignoring everything that was going on, but he'd gotten rid of her and then he'd stayed with you while you had a nervous breakdown.

On some level he wanted you, you knew that now that you were thinking clearly, and even if it was just a physical level for now, it was nice to be wanted by someone.

And then there was Mokuba. Even though your relationship with Seto might be ambiguous at best, you still had Mokuba, and Mokuba really made you feel like part of the family. He was the brother you always wanted and spending time with him had made you feel at home. You could easily say that you loved him, even if he did cheat at nearly every single game you played.  
Seto and Mokuba were your family now.

\-----

“Just shut up and get back to work!”

You looked up just in time to see your boss run away from Seto, and you wondered what he was doing on this floor. Normally he didn't stalk around the floors at random, and the last time he'd been on this floor had been your first day of work. Then Seto was walking toward you, and you realized that he was on this floor because of you, or for you, same difference. In the end, all your coworkers were going to hate you for causing them to have heart attacks.

“Come up to my office when you're done for the day.”

“Okay.” You figured that if you just agreed he would leave without yelling at anyone else.

Of course you were wrong. Oh he turned to leave the moment you agreed, but he stopped along the way to yell at anyone who didn't look like they were being productive. You noticed someone walk out of the bathroom, and then turn around and walk right back in. No doubt they were curled up in a corner and hyperventilating.

It was almost amusing. Almost being the key word. You were sure that you would be in trouble too if you didn't look like you were working.

The moment he disappeared from your floor, all of your coworkers turned to glare at you. Yeah, you weren't going to be making new friends anytime in the near future. You mouthed a 'Sorry!' and dove right back into your work.

The rest of the day was more than a little tense and awkward. Whenever you walked by any of your coworkers, they'd glare at you, and when you had to deal with anyone else, you only got short, clipped responses. It was the biggest headache of a day, and you wished that your best friend were home. If you had your way, you'd be heading straight over to her place after work. You'd complain about your problems, and then go out to a bar with her and get drunk.

But you weren't going to have it your way. The end of the day found you riding the elevator up to Seto's office and completely bypassing his secretary. You weren't sure why he wanted to see you, and you honestly didn't have a clue what it would be about.

You pushed his door open and looked into his office. He was working at his desk, a position that you were becoming very familiar with. “You wanted to see me?”

“You're done already?” He looked over at the clock, and you figured that he probably just lost track of time. “Sit down. I'll be done with these documents soon.”

You wanted to ask why that mattered, but you decided it was probably wiser to just wait for him to finish. Rather than sitting in the uncomfortable chair in front of his desk, you opted to make use of his couch. Your eyes were feeling rather heavy, and it would be nice to close them for a quick rest…

At first, you weren't entirely sure how long you'd been asleep. Seto was still in the exact same position, but the window behind him revealed that it was getting darker outside. “What time is it?” you asked as you pulled yourself into a sitting position.

“Six-thirteen.”

That explained why you were feeling a little stiff, you had been sleeping curled up on a couch for about an hour.

“Are you ready to go?”

You were confused. “Go where?”

He stood and grabbed his jacket. “Jewelry store. Do you have a preference?”

Of course you had a preference, but you weren't going to declare it without knowing why he was taking you jewelry shopping. “Why're we going?”

“Your mother was correct about one thing. You need a ring.”

“I don't... why?” You weren't entirely sure that you needed a ring, and you hated the idea of your mother being right, but you wanted to know why he thought you needed one.

“I don't need people calling me cheap.”

Great. He was just getting you a ring to keep up appearances. “Well in that case, nevermind. I'm not going to wear a large gaudy ring just so you can look good in the papers.”

He sighed. “It's not just that. I want people to know that you're mine.”

In theory, you should be offended that he was treating you like an object. You weren't. It actually made you feel a little bit mushy on the inside. But only a little, and you weren't going to tell him that. “I still don't like the idea of my mother being right about anything.” You followed him into the elevator.

“If it helps, she was wrong about everything else. Especially the part where she thought I'd let you divorce me.”

You smiled up at him. Some of that frustration that you couldn't leave him was still there, but if you were being honest with yourself, you didn't want to leave him. At least not at the moment. That might change in the future. You might discover that you can't stand him, but for now, it was nice to be accepted into the Kaiba family. 

You grabbed his hand, not sure if he might pull away but impulsively deciding to risk it, and told him where your favorite jewelry store was located.

He didn't pull away and the two of you rode down the elevator and walked into the waiting limousine hand in hand.

When you reached the jewelry store, you could tell that the woman behind the counter recognized Seto right away. She was grinning from ear to ear as she asked him what he was looking for. The moment he said he wanted to see all their engagement rings she ran off to grab all of the most expensive rings.

They were all ridiculous. You weren't going to stick a five carat diamond surrounded by various other large gemstones on your finger. You didn't even think you would be able to put your ring and middle fingers together if you had some of those rings on!

Your distaste must have been apparent because Seto told the woman to go fetch rings that weren't as ostentatious. Of course, it was possible that he'd realized just how ridiculous some of those rings were, but you were fairly sure that he had a Blue-Eyes jet so you doubted that.

When the woman came back with more rings, you spotted it. It was the perfect ring, and if you'd ever spent time dreaming about engagement rings, it would have been exactly what you would have dreamed about. “That one.” You pointed at it. The woman brought it out and you tried it on, but it was unfortunately too large.

Frowning, the saleswoman sized your finger. “I think we have that style ring in your size in the back. Let me go check.”

You crossed your fingers. If they didn't have it, you were sure that you could always just have the ring that was on display resized to fit your finger, but now that the idea was in your head, you kind of wanted to wear a ring.

She came back with two boxes and opened one to reveal the ring that you'd wanted. You tried it on and it fit perfectly. Then she opened the other box to reveal a large band. “If Mr. Kaiba was thinking about getting a wedding band as well, that ring has a matching band for the man.”

“No, that won't be necessary.”

You giggled still thinking about his jet. “I think Mr. Kaiba would only take a wedding band if it looked like a Blue-Eyes.” That comment earned you a glare from the man next to you. The saleswoman, on the other hand, looked confused, and maybe she was wondering if you were seriously suggesting that she go find a Blue-Eyes ring.

Seto saved her from her confusion by telling her that he was ready to pay for the ring.

Once the two of you were back in the limo, you kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks. I really love the ring.”

“I should have bought one weeks ago.” He was avoiding eye-contact by staring out the window, and you knew that was his way of saying, 'You're welcome.’


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little shorter than usual, but it's also transitional.  
>   
> Enjoy~

When Seto told you that he still needed to get more work done, it deflated your happy bubble a little. He'd just bought you the perfect ring, and you were feeling happy and excited about it. Now he was declaring that he needed to get back to work, and it was spoiling your romance. 

Oh well, you needed to keep your head on straight. This wasn't a storybook moment. Seto Kaiba was your husband, a husband that you were growing fond of, but you didn't love him. This wasn't a marriage of love. 

He was still your friend of a sort, and you didn't want him to go back to the office tonight. It just felt wrong. “Couldn't you work in your office? Why have an office at home if you never use it?” 

“Do you want me to work at home?” He seemed to be sizing you up. His eyes were looking for an answer to more than just what he'd said. 

You wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but you stopped yourself. “I know we have dinner in your office a lot, but I thought it might be nice to actually have dinner at home tonight.” 

He told the driver to take the two of you back to the mansion rather than Kaiba Corp. and you smiled at him. He could be considerate when he wanted. 

Of course the moment the two of you arrived back at the mansion, he went straight up to his office without a word. 

Standing alone in an empty hall, you looked down at your hand and at the ring sitting on your finger. It was the perfect ring for you. The sort of ring that you might have dreamed about. Except it didn't even represent a real marriage. You should have gotten a ring with a cubic zirconia rather than a real diamond. Then the ring might have been a better symbol of the relationship that you had with Kaiba. 

It was tempting to take the ring off and throw it aside, but that wouldn't do anything about the situation. You couldn't just throw aside the marriage, but you could hope that maybe one day you might have one worthy of the ring that you were wearing. 

Okay, it was time to stop thinking about it. You were officially getting a little delusional and depressed at the same time. It was time to go into the kitchens to see how much time you had before dinner would actually be ready. 

The chef was actually relieved to see you. He had been notified that Seto was home for dinner and the entire kitchen staff was in a frenzy. “Will Mr. Kaiba be eating at the table or should I have everything sent up to him?” 

Well that was an obvious question that you somehow hadn't considered. You personally wanted to eat at the table and have a proper meal, but you knew that Seto would prefer to eat in his home office while he worked. You honestly couldn't hold it against him. In the past, you often ate with a book or your computer sitting on the table next to you. He had a lot of work and eating while working saved time. 

“Have both our meals delivered to his study,” you finally told the chef. 

“They'll be sent up as quickly as possible!” 

You were sure that they would be, but it wasn't like Seto would notice. When he worked, he barely paid any attention to what he happened to be putting into his mouth. You could probably put rubber food onto his plate, and he would still attempt to take a bite. 

Oh well, at least you had more comfortable places to sit while you ate in his study. His office at Kaiba Corp. had couches but they both faced away from his desk and you were never able to get him to join you on them. His study had a few nice plushy chairs that you were sure Mokuba placed in there at some point in the past. (One of them was lime green. If Seto Kaiba picked _that_ out you'd shave all your hair off.) 

You retrieved a book from your room before joining Seto in his study. He was already seated at the desk working on his computer on something. You settled down in one of the very overstuffed chairs and stretched into a comfortably awkward position before opening the book to where you last left off. 

“I'm going to Tokyo for business soon.” 

You lowered your book so that it was resting on your stomach and observed Seto carefully. He was still working and his attention didn't seem to be on you, but you were positive that he had just said something to you. He almost never started the conversation, normally you had to open up a conversation by asking him a question or mentioning something he'd be interested in. This was new and should be treated with the utmost caution. “Will you have time to see Mokuba while you're there?” 

“He wants me to stay with him.” The clear disgust in his voice told you exactly what he thought about that plan, but it didn't tell you why he wouldn't want to stay with his brother. 

“That sounds like fun.” 

“You don't know what a slob Mokuba is.” 

You really didn't, but it couldn't be that bad. “I'd stay with him.” 

“You might, but the moment you found a spider in your bed you'd probably run screaming from his apartment.” You could see a smirk tugging at the edge of Seto's lips, he was probably thinking about your recent incident with your kitten and a spider. Well it wasn't your fault! That spider was clearly trying to attack you! You were lucky that your kitten was there to save you. “I don't want to have to deal with your screaming again. We'll be staying in a hotel.” 

He was such a... wait, he said we didn't he? “I'm going with you?” 

“Some of my business partners want to meet you.” He finally paused his work and looked directly at you. “Will you be able to behave appropriately?” 

The answer to that was a no-brainer. You really wanted to go to Tokyo with him. “Yes!” 

He went straight back to his work, seemingly satisfied with your response. “Good. We'll be leaving next Thursday.” 

That might be a problem. “What about work?” 

“You're excused.” 

He was so ridiculous. He worked all the time but then he would turn around and easily excuse you from your work like it was nothing. “But I've got a lot that I need to do. I can't just take off on my department like that!” 

“Get all your work done ahead of time or bring it on the trip and email it to them.” He was looking at you again, but this time he seemed to be surprised by something. You weren't entirely sure what it was an he wasn't sharing. “I'm sure we can find a way for you to get your work done without actually being there.” 

“Okay.” That was a huge relief. “In that case, I'd really enjoy going to Tokyo. I miss Mokuba.” It was true. The entire mansion was empty and lonely without him, and it was much easier talking to him than Seto. 

He nodded and went back to his work. Apparently that was all he'd wanted to say to you. 

As the maids brought in your dinner, you tried to rack your brain for another topic to discuss. Someone on your floor at work had mentioned a new gaming system being released soon. It was supposed to be the best thing on the market by using holograms instead of 3D technology. 

“I hear Kaiba Corp. is releasing a new system soon.” 

“Not unless my development team figures out how to use their brains.” You didn't know if you should wince or smile at that. “I tested it today. The design was horrible and it barely worked.” 

You could only imagine how terrified the development team probably was by now. Seto Kaiba testing your designs was probably already a horrible experience. Having him completely hate and insult them might make people break down. It would make you cry, that was for sure. Just thinking about it was making you nervous. “Do you test everything that Kaiba Corp. produces?” 

“Yes.” 

“ _Everything_?” How could he? Where would he find the time for that? 

He seemed to suddenly notice the food that was sitting on his desk. “Of course. The only way to ensure that my company produces nothing but excellence is to have the final say on everything that we put on the market.” He barely even glanced at what he was picking up off the plate. One day you would put rubber food in front of him. 

“So you'll be testing the game I'm working on when it's completed?” 

“Do you need me to give you the definition of 'everything'?” He was looking at you like you were stupid again. You really hated that look. It made him seem even farther away from you than he already was. 

You looked down at your food. “No, I was just checking.” That was the end of that conversation and the end of conversation for the night. After you finished eating, you decided to go do your reading in your room instead. In the large empty mansion, it was usually nice to be in the same room as Kaiba. The empty corridors and rooms made you feel alone and scared at night, but tonight you would take solitude over the loneliness you felt while he was still in the room. 

You ended up getting so involved in the book that you barely even noticed as time passed. Eventually your eyes began to droop, but you wanted to know what was happening next so you persisted. One more chapter became your mantra. 

Then the book was tugged from your hands. “No!” you wailed. “I need to know if he gets beheaded!” 

Seto placed your book down on the night stand, careful to keep it open to the page you were currently on. “You should be asleep.” 

“You're still awake,” you pointed out. 

“I'm about to go to sleep, and you're normally asleep by now.” 

He was about to go to bed? That was ridiculous! He never went to sleep earlier than three. 

Then you looked over at the clock and realized that it was past four am. You had to wake up in less than two hours to get ready for work. You rubbed at your eyes trying to make the time change, but it didn't. “I lost track of time.” It was a weak defense but true. 

“Go to sleep.” Seto turned off the lights in the room and you were glad that you changed into your pajamas earlier in the night. You heard the rustle of his clothing as he undressed and crawled in under the covers. Before the bed dipped under his weight, you were already safely on your side of the bed. That didn't last for very long. After he settled into bed, he pulled you so that you were nestled against his body. 

You held your breath, wondering if he might do something else, but nothing else happened. His breathing evened out and he seemed content to simply hold you close. You relaxed your body and settled yourself into a more comfortable position against him. 

You fell asleep to the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed in and out. 

The next morning you were surprised when he woke you up an hour later than he normally did. You asked him why but he simply avoided the question by telling you to get ready faster. 

Sure he was abrasive and rude, but you were almost positive that he intentionally let you sleep in. He denied it and told you to get ready before he fired you, but you knew that he wasn't serious.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Through all the rewrites and the constant ups and downs of writing this fic, I'm really so grateful for all the support I get. The comments, kudos, and favorites all keep me going. Knowing that people are still out there wanting to see the end to this story keeps me motivated. :) So thank you all so very much!

Traveling via a personal jet was a new experience for you, and much like every other experience related to Kaiba, it was also incredibly uncomfortable. 

It had nothing to do with the amount of space or seats in the jet. Unlike his Blue-Eyes jet, this one had plenty of room in the cabin. It was more than enough room for two people. You didn't even have to interact with Kaiba. Not that you could if you wanted to. He was sitting toward the back of the jet with his work spread out. It was taking up all of the space around him. You'd ended up sitting toward the front of the cabin. His work didn't give you any room to sit next to him, and you didn't want to sit near his work and risk accidentally knocking any of it out of place. Additionally, Kaiba seemed to be irritable today, and you wanted to stay out of his way. Out of sight, out of mind, out of range of the rage. 

Sitting by yourself wasn't lonely. His stewardess bothered you far too often for you to really say you were lonely. Being asked if you wanted anything to drink or eat every five minutes nearly drove you up a wall. You weren't able to focus on anything but the fact that you really wanted to yell at the stewardess. 

No, you weren't lonely. You were bored. 

The pilot had recently announced that the plane would be landing soon, and you were grateful for that. You'd brought a book to read, but you honestly didn't feel like reading it. You'd tried to read it, but you kept going over the same paragraph on the same page. Over and over again without even knowing what any of it said. You just couldn't concentrate on it. 

The constant interruptions probably didn't help. Now you understood why Kaiba was so quick to anger when people showed up at his office unannounced.

Kaiba spent the entire time in silence. Working. You often found yourself staring at him, which didn't help your attempt to read. (Maybe you shouldn't blame it all on the stewardess?) 

You understood that he had work and that this entire trip was for his work. You were on vacation, but he wasn't. Of course he probably never took vacations, so that almost seemed like a moot point. 

Glancing back out the window, you could see the long, black runways. Soon the plane would land, and you would officially be in Tokyo. It was a little exciting to know that you would be seeing Mokuba again. He'd promised that he was going to show you around the city. When you'd told him that this wasn't your first time in Tokyo, he'd simply responded that it was your first time visiting an awesome photographer with all the best connections. 

It was your first time visiting as Mrs. Kaiba too, but you had refrained from sarcastically pointing that out. It probably wouldn't make a difference. Kaiba already warned you that he would be working a majority of the time. 

Which wasn't a surprise for you. Kaiba was constantly working, and the only time you actually got to see him was when you visited him for dinner, and he worked through that too. It was silly to expect that a new location would change his habits. 

The flight landed smoothly with no problems. Yet the pilot still seemed nervous as he stood near the exit of the plane. The pilot and the stewardess bowed and told Kaiba to have a good day, but Kaiba didn't seem to notice them in the slightest. 

He didn't seem to notice you either. He'd packed up his work as the plane was slowly coming to a stop, and the moment the plane stopped completely, he stood and grabbed his briefcase. Without a word or even a glance, he exited the airplane. 

You trailed behind him, it wasn't like you actually had anything to pack up, and tried to smile at his employees on your way out. 

As the two of you entered the airport, he grabbed your hand. It was sudden and startling. Then he started pulling you, and you realized that he wasn't trying to be romantic or boyfriend-y. He was just making sure you didn't get lost in the crowd. Then someone ran into your shoulder, jostling you, and you instinctively started walking a little bit behind him so that he would act as a buffer. 

The crowd parted like the red sea for him. Even if people didn't realize right away that he was Seto Kaiba, he was still a tall intimidating man. He walked with purpose and confidence. He looked like the sort of person who would shove you out of their way without hesitation and people naturally moved out of his path. 

Did his confidence come from all his money, or did he have that confidence before he became CEO? Maybe his confidence came from something other than his money? He was good-looking and intelligent in addition to his wealth. 

You felt like you should know what it was that gave him so much confidence. 

Outside of the airport, a car was waiting for the two of you. Kaiba led you straight to it before opening the door and shoving you inside. You slid across the seat and all the way against the other door to give him room. He joined you in the backseat, closing the door behind him and giving the driver instructions to drive to Mokuba's apartment. 

“We'll visit Mokuba first so you can understand why I booked us a hotel room.” He wasn't looking at you, but you were the only person present so he had to be talking to you. He seemed to be looking out of the window as if observing the world outside, but you really knew that he was probably judging the way his driver was driving. 

Despite his lack of attention, you still felt the need to respond to him. “I'm sure it's not that bad.” 

Kaiba scoffed, but otherwise let you believe in your delusion, because that's exactly what it turned out to be. 

When Mokuba opened his door, you bounced into his apartment, excited about the next few days and happy to see him again. Then the smell of his apartment accosted you. 

At first, your eyes landed on the clothing lying around the floor and you wondered why Mokuba's clothing was thrown around a room other than his bedroom. Then you decided that was a question you didn't want answered as you noticed a condom wrapper sitting inside an open and not quite empty pizza box. 

“You didn't clean,” Kaiba commented as if the state of Mokuba's apartment was normal. 

As you made your way into the apartment, you nearly tripped over a pile of empty beer bottles. From the way they seemed to be thoughtfully stacked, you would have thought that maybe someone was trying to keep them in a nice little pile, but since the pile was inconveniently placed in the center of the room you decided that someone had just been bored. Or the beer bottles were part of some game. The logic behind any of this chaos was beyond your poor mortal comprehension. 

Mokuba was unashamed. “I never do.” 

“I would have expected you to clean for your sister.” Kaiba was frowning, and for a moment, you thought that it was because he really had expected Mokuba to do some cleaning for you. Then you followed his gaze and saw what had his attention. 

A pair of lace panties were hanging off the ceiling fan. Paranoia struck, and your eyes snapped up to the ceiling above your head to make sure that nothing was about to fall down onto your head. 

“Family never counts as guests. I don't need to clean for either of you.” Mokuba was grinning. He either didn't know about the panties that had your attention or didn't care. 

Kaiba caught you glancing at the ceiling as you edged around the room. “Now do you understand why I booked us a suite?” 

Mokuba protested. He honestly didn't see why the two of you couldn't stay with him. You hated to agree with Kaiba, but you understood exactly why. If Mokuba's living room was this bad, you couldn't imagine what the other rooms of his apartment might look like. Just the thought of going into his kitchen made you cringe. 

At the same time, you didn't want to end up stuck in a hotel the entire time that you were here. “I really do want to spend time with Mokuba.” 

Mokuba flung himself at you, somehow able to avoid all the obstacles on his floor, and wrapped his arms around your shoulders. “You're the best sister ever!” He pulled away so he could give Kaiba a smug smile. “See! She doesn't mind at all!” 

“She should. This place practically needs a hazardous waste sign.” Kaiba looked pointedly at the dangling panties again. “I regret giving it to you.” 

“This place was yours?” It was hard to see Kaiba owning an apartment, not even one that took up an entire floor. Besides, Mokuba had told you that Kaiba refused to support him financially. 

“It was a birthday present.” Mokuba grinned. “But it wasn't like Seto actually used it.” 

As you wandered deeper into the apartment, you kept a careful eye on where you were walking and what you were walking beneath. Even if you could reconcile yourself with the idea that Kaiba had once owned an apartment, you still couldn't see any traces of Kaiba's personality present, and that wasn't because of all the trash lying around. The walls of the living room were a bright orange color and there was a massive TV attached to the wall. While Kaiba did have a large TV in his mansion, he never actually used it, and you were almost positive that it was just something he had because of Mokuba. 

Your curiosity about the rest of the apartment was slowly beginning to stomp out your reluctance to go deeper into the mess. 

“Did you want something?” Mokuba asked, perhaps confusing your speculative glances for searching. “Maybe a drink?” 

“I don't know...” you trailed off, wondering again about the state of his kitchen. Would anything in there even be _safe_ for consumption? “Can I see what you have?” 

Mokuba led you into his kitchen, and it was surprisingly spotless. The garbage seemed to be close to overflowing, but that was the only real problem. After the state of his living room, you were completely shocked by this turn of events. 

“Don't look so surprised. Mokuba doesn't actually use his kitchen. I doubt he even knows how to operate his stove.” Kaiba reminded you, once more, of his accurate mind-reading as he answered your unasked question. 

“Like you do?” Mokuba's tone was playful as he pulled his refrigerator open so you could look at its contents. 

You looked inside the open fridge and saw the accuracy of Kaiba's statement. The fridge was full of beer cans, pizza boxes, and takeout containers (one of which appeared to be growing mold). There was a mostly-empty bottle of some sort of alcohol closer to the back, but that appeared to be all Mokuba kept. The mold was what was really getting to you. Mokuba needed to throw that out ASAP. 

Kaiba must have noticed just how disgusted you were. “Are you ready to agree to the hotel now?” He sounded smug, and that caused a tiny part of you to want to say that you couldn't see anything wrong with Mokuba's apartment. 

Of course, you understood exactly why Kaiba refused to stay with Mokuba. It wasn't just because you were disgusted by the surroundings yourself. Kaiba was a complete neat freak. You liked clean spaces, but Kaiba noticed if the maids in his mansion didn't dust properly. He took it so far beyond normal that you suspected that he probably had OCD. It wasn't a bad thing, but it definitely would make staying in Mokuba's apartment a miserable experience for him. You, on the other hand, were bothered by Mokuba's mess, but that didn't stop you from wanting to spend time with Mokuba even if that meant you also had to spend some of your time wary of his decorations. 

If you didn't stay with Mokuba, would you still be able to spend a lot of time with him? 

“The hotel isn't far from here. Mokuba can easily come pick you up, and I'm sure that he's already planning on taking you to work with him.” Kaiba's mind reading skill must have kicked in again. 

“Seto!” Mokuba whined. “I was going to ask her to come to work with me myself. You can't just steal my thunder!” 

“You took too long. I want to go to the hotel so I can get back to work.” 

You didn't know why, but the two Kaiba brothers seemed to enjoy their lighthearted bantering. Despite his whining, Mokuba was grinning from ear to ear, and Kaiba looked amused. You weren't that used to conflict, and even though you often stood your ground, you weren't a fan of arguing. You had to adapt to their constant banter about everything and anything. The two brothers were day and night on more subjects than just cleanliness, and they both seemed to be okay with never quite seeing eye to eye. 

Normally you just sat back and watched, but you knew that Kaiba probably did have work to do. “Go to the hotel and work,” you interrupted the two brothers. 

Mokuba seemed to like that idea and flung an arm across your shoulders. “Yeah! You can come back for your lovely wife later.” 

“I'm not leaving her alone in this dump.” 

You didn't want to go back to the hotel and watch Kaiba work. You had more than enough of that on the plane ride. “I'll stay and make Mokuba clean. It's better than sitting at the hotel with nothing to do and it'll keep me from bothering you while you work.” 

“Clean?! I don't like that idea!” 

Mokuba might not have been a fan of your idea, but Kaiba's smirk said that he liked your plan. “I'll be back later so we can go out for dinner together.” 

Mokuba waited until Kaiba was definitely gone before asking you if you were actually serious about cleaning. He seemed to think that you must have been joking or lying to get Kaiba to leave. 

“Of course I'm serious! Mokuba, this place is filthy. It needs to be cleaned.” 

Mokuba whined and complained, but you stood your ground. His apartment went beyond just clutter or a standard mess. He had women's underwear flying around for crying out loud! 

“Why don't I just get someone to clean for me?” 

You almost started scolding him for trying to get out of cleaning with such a ridiculous idea but shut your mouth. Why _didn't_ he have someone to clean for him? He was a fairly successful photographer, and if he could afford to buy all those cars in the Kaiba garage, then why couldn't he just hire someone to clean for him? 

“Why don't you have a maid?” 

Mokuba just shrugged. “Finding one is a pain, and I didn't see any reason. When the apartment gets really bad, some of the models just clean it for me.” He said it casually, as if having other people clean your place wasn't weird. 

“Mokuba, little kids know how to clean up after themselves.” You just couldn't understand why he would let or ask someone else to clean his place for him. “You're too spoiled.” 

He frowned. “Whatever. I don't have to do it. Let's just go out so I can show you around. Did you bring clothes to party in?” 

The mention of clothing hit a nerve. Before coming to Tokyo, Kaiba had complained that you didn't have any suitable clothing for the trip. Despite the large wardrobe full of stuff that he'd given you within a week of being married to him. A wardrobe that you still hadn't had time to go through. 

He'd insisted on taking you shopping for appropriate attire. Apparently he was bringing you along specifically so he could introduce you to people. At first, you were okay with letting him buy you whatever he wanted since it was his money. Then you noticed the price tags on the things he was telling you to try on. Everything in the store had been obscenely overpriced. 

He bought it all for you despite your protests that there were more reasonable stores out there. In fact, you were sure that he bought you extra clothes just because you had protested. 

“I have plenty of clothing,” you muttered as you thought back to the argument in the store. 

“But did you bring stuff for clubs? Because the clubs here are nothing like the clubs in Domino. Here you really need to dress to impress.” 

You glared at Mokuba. Maybe he didn't know he was touching a nerve, but that didn't stop his words from being irritating. “I'm sure I have something that'll work.” 

“That's not good enough!” Mokuba frowned. “Let's go shopping!” 

Oh for the love of—Why did the Kaiba men like shopping more than you did? As Mokuba dragged you out of his apartment, you decided that the brothers were trying to drive you insane. If none of the clothes in your closet back home were appropriate for anything then why were they even there?! 

Maybe you should have protested a bit more as Mokuba dragged you out of his apartment, but you were admittedly pleased to be leaving that mess behind. Hopefully he would clean it (or have it cleaned) by tomorrow. At the same time, you hoped that shopping with Mokuba wouldn't be as painful as shopping with Kaiba. 

Shopping with Kaiba had been a little on the awkward side. Since he dragged you out to buy clothes for a specific purpose, he had been the one to pick out all the clothes. You were simply there to ensure that they fit your body. So as Kaiba sat back and made comments, the women working at the store dressed you, undressed you, and pinned the clothes that needed adjustments. Kaiba seemed to be completely unaffected by your various states of undress, but you were mortified the entire time. 

You were positive that Mokuba wouldn't subject you to anything like that.  
  


\-----

Mokuba was worse. He was so much worse. 

You were currently standing in a dressing room, staring at yourself in the mirror and immaturely hoping that Mokuba would forget about you and leave. 

“Are you dressed yet?” Mokuba called out from right outside your dressing room. “I have a few more things I want you to try on.” 

Technically you were dressed, but you didn't think that you could really go out anywhere in the _dress_ that you were wearing. Not that you would actually call it a dress. It looked more like a tiny little slip that you would wear underneath something transparent, not something that you'd wear by itself. It was far too low in the front for you to wear a bra, but the fabric was too light for you to go braless. 

“Mokuba, I'm definitely not getting this dress.” 

He pulled open the curtain, and you reflexively crossed your arms over your chest. “HEY! I could be undressing you know!” 

“I'm sure you don't have anything I haven't seen before.” He tried to pull your arms to your side so he could look at the dress on you. 

“That doesn't mean you should be looking!” 

“You're my sister now. That means you're practically genderless.” 

“Great, thanks,” you mumbled. 

He ignored you. “Yeah, I don't like this dress either. It's not a good color for you.” He shoved another set of clothes into your hands. “Try those on.” 

You groaned. You'd long since lost track of how many outfits Mokuba had forced onto you. Shouldn't it be time for dinner yet? 

Reluctantly, you held the clothes away from your body so you could look at them. One item was a tiny little black tube. Probably a miniskirt. The other one looked like a red shirt, but it had so many straps that you didn't know where to begin to put it on. 

You almost called out for help from Mokuba. Almost. Then you realized that he might actually try to help you into the shirt. So you let the dress drop off your body and tugged the shirt over your head. First you adjusted the area over your chest. There was no way the shirt would let your nipples show so part of it had to go over your chest. Then you looked to see if there were any holes for your arms, but it looked more like the straps tied around your neck. There were two sets of straps for you to tie, but you were fairly sure that the second set tied behind your back. After the shirt, the skirt was simple. You simply unzipped it, pulled it up over your hips, and zipped it back up. 

A simple glance in the mirror confirmed that this outfit was just as skanky as the last two thousand and twenty three. You pulled the curtain back and did a quick scan for Mokuba. After catching his eye, you glared at him. “Seriously? I don't want to go out looking like I'm trying to get laid.” 

“That's how everyone dresses.” He held up a shirt with a neckline that would show off your belly button. “What about this?” 

He clearly wasn't understanding the words that were coming out of your mouth. “No.” You emerged from the dressing room, thankful that the store was currently devoid of any other shoppers, and began to scan through the clothes yourself. 

Mokuba turned to the saleswoman standing next to him. “A gorgeous woman like you probably goes out to the clubs all the time.” 

She giggled, and you didn't have to look at her to know she was flattered by Mokuba's attention. “Oh, sometimes.” 

“Please tell her that everyone dresses like this.” 

“They do!” she eagerly agreed. 

You turned to roll your eyes at Mokuba. “Well I don't, and you know that your brother wouldn't let me out dressed like this anyway.” Of course you were just using that as a convenient excuse. 

“He'll never even see! He'll probably just go back to work after dinner!” 

No, you weren't going to let Mokuba throw away your excuse. You didn't care if Kaiba never saw it. You personally didn't want to go out dressed like this. “It might show up in the papers. You know how much I've been getting stalked lately.” 

“They don't know you're in Tokyo yet—” 

“It doesn't matter,” you interrupted. “I don't want to go dressed like this.” You finally found a simple black dress. It was perfect. The little black dress never failed right? You held it up to your body before dashing back into the fitting room. 

Mokuba followed you, almost into the dressing room itself. “What did you just grab?” 

“Give me a sec.” You pulled the curtain shut and quickly changed into the dress. Mokuba was impatient and shameless. You wanted to be in the dress before he decided to follow you into the dressing room. The dress was simple, and you barely spared yourself a glance in the mirror before pulling the curtain back. “I want this dress.” 

Mokuba frowned as he looked you over. “How are you going to get attention in something so simple?” 

“Mokuba, I'm not twenty-one anymore. I don't need attention when I go out.” Male attention was the last thing on your mind at the moment. Honestly you just wanted to relax and have fun with Mokuba, and going out to a club with him was starting to seem like a bad idea. 

Mokuba's response was cut off. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and you weren't surprised to know that the popular song was his ringtone. He would have a song like that on his phone. 

“Hey, Seto.” 

You noted that Mokuba hadn't bothered to look at the phone before answering it. Was that ringtone specific to Kaiba? You suddenly wanted to know if you had your own ringtone. If so, what was it? You'd have to call Mokuba later. 

“Time for dinner?” you asked as Mokuba put his phone away. 

“Yeah.” His expression was glum. “He's at my apartment already so we better get over there.” 

You nodded. “I'll go put my clothes back on.” It would suck to be stuck in that apartment alone. If something emerged from the mess to drag you down to the dark depths of trash, you might never be found. 

You were also eager to get out of the store. Today involved far too much time in the changing room trying on various outfits. So you quickly shimmied out of the dress and threw your clothes back on. You emerged from the dressing room with enough time to stop Mokuba from buying one of the slutty outfits for you. After a brief argument, he let you buy the black dress. 

By the time the two of you made it back to the apartment, Kaiba was no longer there. 

"Mokuba! Your apartment ATE him!"


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the shorter chapter. Please enjoy!

 “Maybe if I call his phone, the ringing will lead us to him?” you suggested as you looked warily at the mess. Either there was something in there that ate people or Seto got buried by a landslide. Neither option seemed like an appealing way to die.

Mokuba said your name, getting your attention. “You don't really think my apartment ate him do you?” He was looking at you like you were crazy.

“There's no other option! It's not like he's running late or something.” Seto never ran late.

Mokuba pulled out his phone. “I bet he got irritated that we weren't here and left.” He put the phone to his ear and seemed to be waiting for something. “Hey, where are you?” He listened for a moment. “You went back to WORK?!” Mokuba sighed, but despite his outburst, he didn't seem very surprised. “Well we'll come pick you up.” Mokuba was silent for a moment. “Oh, okay. I guess we can meet you there. Bye.” Mokuba hung up and looked at his phone for a moment before shoving it back into his pocket.

“What's up?” you asked.

“He's invited one of his business partners to dinner. We're going to meet them at the restaurant.” Mokuba frowned. “You need to change first.”

“I do?” You didn't understand why. You were wearing comfortable clothes for traveling, but they were still nice. You weren't wearing a stained shirt or jeans with holes.

“They won't let you into the restaurant dressed like that. Seto might be able to convince them otherwise, but you really should just change into something more suitable. I probably have something you could use—”

“No,” you interrupted. “If you're thinking of something that used to belong to someone that you've slept with, I don't think so.”

“Well, we can either go out and buy you a new outfit or go to the hotel so you can change.”

You held up the bag in your hands. “Can't I just put on my new dress?”

“Well, I guess.” Mokuba didn't sound very happy about the idea. “But do you have any shoes or accessories to go with it?” Mokuba's face lit up. “Ooooooooooh! Let's go buy shoes and jewelry for it!”

You weren't surprised that he would suggest just _buying_ the things that you needed. You were starting to get used to the way that Mokuba threw around money. That didn't mean that you were comfortable with throwing around money yourself. “No. Let's just go to the hotel.” Mokuba did have a point about the shoes at least.

“But buying new stuff will take less time! And it'll be more fun.”

“Maybe for you,” you muttered. Shopping with Mokuba was not a mistake that you would make again. “No, really, it's fine Mokuba. Let's just go to the hotel.”

Mokuba pouted, but he willingly took you to the hotel that you were staying at with Seto. Since you deprived him of a fun shopping spree,, he demanded that you let him pick out your outfit for dinner. Since you didn't know where you were going or what would be appropriate to wear, you willingly gave in to him.

Despite all of the inappropriate clothing that Mokuba tried to get you to buy, he was actually good at picking out outfits. He did complain that you didn't pack enough outfits for the trip and that his selections were limited, but you just tuned him out. He shoved clothes at you and you put them on without protest.

There was something to be said for having a Brother-in-Law who was a photographer. Without Mokuba, you would have been completely out of your element in all of the places that Seto frequented. You were learning what sort of clothes were appropriate for the many restaurants in Domino, but you didn't know anything about Tokyo.

The moment you emerged wearing the dress that he selected, he gave you jewelry to wear.

“Thank you, Mokuba.” You really meant it. He was helping you transition into your new life, and you didn't know what you would have done without him.

“No problem! Of course you could have packed more and made my job easier!” he teased.

You just smiled. “Should we head to the restaurant now?”

\-----

Seto was at the restaurant by the time you showed up with Mokuba. The hostess recognized Mokuba and led the two of you to a table where Seto was conversing with another man. Their conversation halted when they noticed you and Mokuba.

Seto introduced you to the man next to him before introducing the man as Yasahiro Hamada.

“So this is the Mrs. Kaiba I've been hearing so much about.” Hamada held out his hand. “It's a pleasure to meet you.”

“It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Hamada.” You shook his hand before taking your seat next to Seto. Hamada was eyeing you with curiosity, but he moved on to Mokuba.

“Mokuba! It's delightful to see you again. I don't suppose you've decided to come back to the business world?”

Mokuba simply laughed. “No way.”

Once the greetings were out of the way, the four of you settled in to eat and the conversation picked up again. When it did, you spent a moment wondering if they'd lapsed into a foreign language. Then you realized that Seto and Hamada were discussing economics and stocks. In the past you were forced to take Economics at school, so you liked to think that you at least had a general knowledge of the subject.

You were wrong. So very wrong.

Occasionally a word or phrase would slip in that you could understand. You could pick up on a few key words here and there, and you were able to identify most company names. Other than that you were completely clueless.

At one point, Hamada asked you about your opinion on the topic. You felt like crying. This felt like a complete nightmare. Mokuba, who was able to participate in the subject, instantly saved you by asking Hamada a question and distracting him.

This wasn't a situation you ever expected to find yourself stuck in. It was like being in a foreign language class and only understanding some of what the professor was saying. You felt stupid.

There was a sudden weight on your hand, and you looked down to see Seto's hand on your own. His hand lightly squeezed yours and you looked at his face to figure out what he was thinking. He wasn't looking at you, he was paying attention to the conversation, but you imagined that he was trying to apologize.

Yet he wasn't making an effort to end the dinner faster. You decided to order a dessert. If you were eating, then nobody could expect you to actually participate in the conversation.

Then Mokuba's phone started ringing. The song was inappropriate, and you could tell that Seto wasn't amused by it in the slightest. You giggled as Mokuba feverishly answered the phone so that it would stop. He probably wasn't going to forget to put it on vibrate next time.

Mokuba excused himself as he greeted the person on the other line. You watched him leave and wished that you could find a reason to leave too.

“I think it's time for us to retire for the night.”

You wondered if Seto could read your expression, but you were relieved to hear him say that. You were finally getting out of this dinner from hell. You stood with Seto and said goodbye to Mr. Hamada.

Outside you found Mokuba sitting casually on a rail and talking to someone who sounded suspiciously female.

“We're leaving,” Seto announced.

“One sec.” Mokuba pressed the phone to his chest. “So I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

Maybe it should have been obvious, but since you arrived with Mokuba you assumed that you were leaving with Mokuba. Now that you actually thought about it logic dictated that you leave with Seto. “Yeah. Bye, Mokuba.”

You didn't have time to say more. Mokuba was busy with his phone call, and Seto was retrieving his car from the valet. You wondered if being more attached to the Kaiba that you weren't married to was a bad sign. Not that you were romantically inclined toward Mokuba. You just felt more comfortable with him.

Seto's car pulled up, and he helped you into the passenger seat. You leaned back into the seat and let your body sink into the contours. Somehow just sitting there and pretending to pay attention was tiring.

“You did well,” Seto commented as he pulled away from the restaurant.

“You're kidding right?” You scoffed. “I could barely follow the conversation. I've never felt so stupid in my life.”

“Nobody expected you to participate in the conversation.”

You didn't know if he was calling you stupid. “Thanks a lot.” You stared out the window hoping that the car would move a little bit faster.

“Whatever you're thinking right now is wrong.”

He couldn't know that. “You don't even know what I'm thinking.”

“It's still wrong.” He was gripping the steering wheel tightly, and you knew that the conversation was bothering him. “You don't deal with business. It's not your job and you aren't expected to know everything about the business world.”

“Hamada seemed to think I should know something.” Otherwise why would he have asked you for your opinion?

“He was being an ass.”

You gaped at Seto. It was like the pot calling the kettle black, and you didn't think you'd ever heard him refer to anyone as an 'ass'.

“Most women giggle inappropriately and try to join the conversation with completely unrelated topics. I think your silence disturbed him.” Seto gave you a half smile. It was feral and unsettling. “If you can disconcert everyone like that, my life is about to get a little bit easier.”

You didn't know what to say to that. You had no idea that your silence was somehow useful or that you were acting strange in any way. “I'll do my best.”

“Good.”

\-----

The moment the two of you returned to your hotel suite, Kaiba asked you what you were planning on doing.

“I'm kind of tired. I think I'll go to sleep.”

He nodded before going straight to the desk and starting up his laptop. You kind of wanted to curl up in bed with him but it couldn't be helped. You changed into your pajamas and by then he was already back to work.

You pulled another chair up to his desk. “Do you mind if I sit with you.”

He didn't even look up. “Go ahead.”

You sat in the chair and stared at him. You weren't sure why but you had the urge to wrap your arms around him and press yourself against him. It was a craving for closeness. You wanted to snuggle up to him.

Tonight's dinner showed you a side of his world that you didn't really think about before now. Before tonight, you never even considered the other people who might actually be part of the business world. Kaiba's work just felt like something he did alone in his office at Kaiba Corp.

You stared expectantly as Seto. Could you fit into that world? Should you even be here? You had so many questions to ask him and you didn't know where to start, but you did know that you wanted him to hold you. Feelings of unease seemed to disappear when he was around.

Seto didn't seem to be paying you any attention. If he wasn't going to turn those mind reading powers on then you were going to have to actually ask him about all the things that were bothering you, but first...

“Can I have a hug?”


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mention a picture in this chapter. It's the one from the end of chapter 12 (it's been a while since I posted it so I don't blame any of you if you forgot).  
>   
> Comforting Kaiba is hard to write. He's not good with people and he doesn't have practice so he's fairly awkward when it comes to comfort. It's hard to write Kaiba being awkward. x.x  
>   
> Enjoy! I'm posting this from my phone so hopefully there's no problems.

 “Can I have a hug?”

The question hung in the air between the two of you. He wasn't saying anything, but he was no longer working so you knew that he heard your request. You didn't know if he was trying to think of a polite way to turn you down or if he was surprised by your request. Maybe he just thought that you were stupid for _asking_ for a hug.

“You know what? Nevermind.” You got up from your chair and turned away from him. You were just going to go to bed now.

Arms wrapped around you from behind, and Seto pulled you back and against his chest. You could feel his head rest on your own. “People don't normally _ask_ for a hug.”

Was Seto Kaiba seriously giving you advice about hugging? You felt your face flush and you couldn't stop yourself from feeling a little defensive. “We're not exactly in a normal relationship.”

He didn't have anything to say to that, and he held you for a moment in silence before you turned around in his arms. Tentatively you wrapped your arms around him. This was your first time hugging him, and you had to admit that it was really nice.

You knew that you were stretching the hug on for too long, but you couldn't help yourself. Having his arms wrapped around you like this was comforting.

He let go of you, and you knew that was his way of telling you that the hug was over now. You released him and took a step back. Shyly you took his hand and held it. You stared down at your connected hands, unwilling to look at his face.

“Is it always going to be as uncomfortable as it was today?” you finally asked.

“Uncomfortable? Did I do something wrong?”

“What? No.” You were puzzled and you looked at him for a hint.

He was frowning. He yanked your hand and pulled you back toward him. You plowed straight into his chest, and his arms wrapped around you. He had your arms pinned so you couldn't move them very much, but you were too frozen with shock to notice.

“Is this better?”

You honestly didn't understand the question. Then the answer hit you. Kaiba thought that you were complaining that his _hug_ was uncomfortable. You started laughing. It was too funny.

“Seto, I was talking about the dinner. Your hug wasn't uncomfortable.” You broke out laughing again. The situation was ridiculous.

“Of course." His arms released you, and without their support, you nearly stumbled to the ground as you shook with laughter.

It took you a few moments to compose yourself, but even then, you were still grinning at him. It was endearing that he could have something he wasn't completely confident about. He refused to make eye contact with you. It was almost adorable.

You decided to forgo teasing him for the moment. “I was serious about tonight's dinner though. The idea of being around your business partners is intimidating. I felt like I didn't belong there tonight.”

He frowned and didn't respond for a long moment. “I already told you that you were fine. I don't know what else I can tell you.”

You were surprised. Of all the things that you might have expected him to say... that wasn't one of them. It was true, he did reassure you in the car, but you still felt like you looked like a fool. You just didn't know anything about business, and you didn't think that you could learn about it quickly.

“Don't worry about it,” he abruptly ordered, as if ordering you not to worry would stop you from feeling anxious.

You just nodded. His words were making you realize that he wasn't accustomed to comforting people. So he was probably as uncomfortable with this subject as you were. “I'm going to sleep now. Night.”

“Good night.” He went back to his desk, and you left the room. You didn't know how much work he had left, but he probably wouldn't be joining you for a while.

That was okay. You went through your bag, digging deep into it and pulling out a picture that you had buried at the bottom. It was the picture from a few weeks ago. The one that Mokuba clipped from a newspaper and taped to your mirror.

Maybe it was weird to keep a newspaper clipping, but you were attached to the picture. Looking at it now, you felt warm inside. He wasn't looking at you, he was angrily looking at all of the people around you, but he was holding your hand and that made all the difference. You looked scared, and he looked like he would rip off the head of everyone making you feel like that.

The picture made you feel like he would protect you. You liked that feeling. You liked the thought that you were _his_ wife, and that he would go after anyone or anything that threatened you. It was a safe feeling.

You could honestly say that you believed Seto would do more to keep you safe than your parents ever would have.

You clutched the picture to your chest. Hopefully this would all get easier with time.

\-----

“Wake up.” There was a hand on your shoulder, lightly shaking you.

“What time is it?” you mumbled. Seto didn't normally try to wake you up at early hours. Unless you had to wake up for work, he was willing to let you sleep in while he woke up, but you weren't opening your eyes if it was six am. You just weren't.

“It's eleven. We're going out to lunch with Mokuba soon.”

You opened your eyes. “Mokuba? Lunch?” You didn't plan to sleep in that much. You sat up. “Okay I'll get ready.”

“Mokuba told me to tell you to dress nicely.”

“What do you mean?” Just telling you to dress nicely was too vague. You wanted specific details.

“How should I know?” Seto called out as he left the room.

You hoped that this wouldn't turn into another business related event. Maybe you should ask Seto if there would be other people there or if it really was just lunch with Mokuba? You decided to just assume it was lunch with Mokuba and get ready first. If Seto said that other people would be there, it would just add extra stress to getting ready that you didn't need.

Even just picking out an outfit that Mokuba would approve of was hard. You were still in just your underwear by the time Seto came back.

“You could knock first!” This wasn't his first time walking in on you, but that didn't make you comfortable with it.

“It's time to leave.” He openly looked at you. “I hope that's not what you're planning to wear.”

“I haven't decided what to wear yet.”

He looked at the outfits that you had out on the bed. “Wear the blue dress.”

“Figures,” you muttered. “You only like it because it's blue.” You put the dress on anyway. It was just a simple day dress, perfect for a nice lunch. Now that Seto had picked it out, you could use him as a scapegoat if Mokuba didn't like it. You turned your back to Seto. “Zip it up for me?” Having someone around to do that was handy. Especially now that most of your clothes had zippers in the back.

He zipped it up. “Are you done now?”

“Yeah.” You slipped on the shoes that you'd already picked out. Since you were going out with Seto, you didn't need your wallet or phone so you didn't bother with a purse.

He didn't say anything, and you followed him out of the hotel room.

“Are we meeting anyone else?” you asked once the two of you were standing in the elevator.

“Mokuba is bringing a date.”

“Really?” That was strange. You didn't think he was serious enough about anyone to bring them to lunch with his brother.

“I asked him to invite someone.” Seto took your hand as the elevator doors opened.

He didn't elaborate, so you didn't bother asking him why, but you were curious to know why he would ask Mokuba to invite a date to lunch.

Seto led you to the restaurant in the hotel and the two of you found Mokuba sitting at the bar with a tall woman.

“There you are!” he called out the moment he saw you. “You're both late!”

Seto shot you a pointed look as if saying, “I told you so.”

“It was my fault,” you apologized.

Mokuba hugged you. “I'm sure Seto didn't tell you about lunch until the last minute. Don't worry!” He pulled away. “Darling sister, I'd like to introduce you to Kimiko. Kimiko this is my lovely new sister!”

“Hi! It's nice to meet you!” Now that Mokuba was no longer hugging you, she took the opportunity to drape herself on his arm. You assumed from how attractive she was and her expensive-looking clothing that she was probably a model. Not that you expected Mokuba to be dating any other type of girl.

“Nice to meet you.” At least she seemed nice enough. Mokuba introduced her to Seto and she didn't make any sort of blatant pass at him.

Seto ignored pleasantries and got straight to the point. “Is there a reason you're at the bar or can we go get a table?”

Mokuba held up a glass. “The alcohol comes faster at the bar?”

Seto shook his head. “We're getting a table.”

You followed him to a table and he pulled out a chair for you. You sat down and he sat down next to you. Mokuba's date was on the other side and Mokuba sat across from you.

Seto and Mokuba launched straight into a conversation about something related to Kaiba Corp, and you wondered what Seto was trying to do.

“Are you guys talking about plans for a new Kaiba Phone?” Kimiko interrupted.

“No.” Seto's response was quick but not rude.

Kimiko didn't seem bothered. “You should come out with a new phone. I feel like I've had mine for forever.” Then she started talking about all the various features that she would like to see on a new phone. Most of them were ridiculous things, like an app for all her shoes.

You just watched her in awe. Was she seriously just changing the subject for no reason? It didn't even seem like she put much thought into it. She seemed to be just talking about whatever came to mind.

Seto grabbed your hand and squeezed it. You turned toward him and he leaned over. “I told you that you were fine yesterday.”

It all clicked. He asked Mokuba to bring a girl along to show you what type of girl usually ended up at business dinners. They weren't women who knew how to keep up with the conversation. They were women who looked pretty.

That was surprisingly nice of him. Maybe he was right. You just needed to get used to it.

\-----

After lunch, Mokuba had to take Kimiko home, but he promised that he would come back right away so he could take you out to have fun. Seto went straight back to the room for a conference call, and you decided that you didn't want to sit there in silence.

So you left the room for a walk, somehow finding yourself in the gift shop. Nobody there seemed to be paying very much attention to you, and it was nice to just look at the various items without feeling the pressure to buy something.

When you found a stand of newspapers, you began looking through them. Even though Seto made his point about not expecting you to be able to talk business, you didn't think it would hurt to at least read the business section of the newspaper. It would be even better if you could find a paper dedicated to business.

You were rifling through the papers, wondering which one would be best, when your eyes landed on a headline.

“Seto Kaiba's Mother-in-Law Tells All!”


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was actually all done in a single sitting. It's unusual, but when I sat down to write it, I was pretty inspired. :) I hope you all enjoy it!

 The moment you read the headline you grabbed the magazine. It was a tabloid, so you tried to tell yourself that they weren't talking about your actual mother. No, it had to be Sasquatch or some other crazy fictional mother that they found. Your real mother was at home, probably still fuming that you still weren't obeying her every command.

You viciously turned the pages, not caring that you might be ripping a few of them, until you found the article. Your gut clenched and you stared at the picture on the pages. It was the last family picture. Taken shortly before you graduated high school and ran away to college, it was most likely the last picture you would ever take with your parents.

It was painful to see yourself looking so perfectly arranged. Your hair was expertly done and your clothes were picked out by your mother. You didn't think you even owned clothes like that anymore. You couldn't be sure, you _still_ weren't familiar with all the clothes that were in your closet at home. Kaiba might have bought you something like that.

Maybe his ideas about what an ideal housewife should look like were similar to your mother's. He almost never commented on your clothes so you wouldn't know what he did or didn't like. Would he prefer this version of you?

You hoped he wouldn't. Nothing could convince you to go back to _her_ existence. You rubbed your eyes and began skimming the article. Your mother painted herself as a victim. Always the victim. You were the rebellious daughter who wouldn't listen to a word of advice and made bad decisions. Somehow she made it sound like you were struggling to survive in Domino, and that you had absolutely no skills or talents.

You read the story of your life told from her eyes, and it just made you angrier and angrier. _How dare she_? She knew nothing about your life after college. Nothing. She was just making all of this up, and it made you furious.

She _imagined_ that you made your money working at generic and questionable jobs. When questioned, she made up 'facts' about you.

By the time the story made it to your marriage with Kaiba, it was only logical that the 'you' painted in this tale would agree to nearly anything for money. You leapt at the offer that Kaiba made, greedily using him to improve your life.

Then she started talking about Kaiba directly. She started telling the interviewer all about how she visited you in an attempt to help you out of your current circumstances. She detailed the way Kaiba's security treated her and you hoped that she wasn't lying about it. Telling them to call the police on her was all you, but she was under the impression that Kaiba tried to keep her away from her precious darling girl.

If she called her visit an attempt to 'help' you, well you weren't sure you ever wanted to see her when she didn't think she was being a proper mother. Apparently she believed that Kaiba felt threatened by her offer to let you come back home and that's why he kicked her out.

You didn't know why she was so dead set on separating you from Kaiba, but you would not let her win. She wasn't going to pull the two of you apart. You were beginning to enjoy spending time with Kaiba and she was trying to ruin it.

Well she wouldn't get in the way of your happiness. Kaiba needed to see this. He would know how to handle it.

“Excuse me, miss,” the clerk called out. “You need to pay for that.”

Right. “Sorry, it slipped my mind.” From his skeptical expression you could tell he didn't believe you. “Charge it to the top floor suite.”

“I can't do that.”

You reached for your room key and ID and realized that you didn't have either one. When you left the room you were with Kaiba so you didn't bother bringing any of your stuff. You reopened the magazine to your mother's article. “You know Seto Kaiba is staying in the top suite right now yes?” The clerk didn't respond and his expression suggested that he wanted you to get to the point. You placed the magazine on the counter and pointed to the picture. “See that? That's me. This article is about Seto Kaiba's wife.”

His shocked expression as he looked at you before looking back down at the article suggested that your point was finally made. “Charge it.”

You grabbed the magazine again and left.

The elevator journey up to the top floor was spent in a state of anxiety. You honestly couldn't guess how Kaiba would react to this news. So far he managed to use blackmail and coercion to keep you mostly out of the news. All of that effort was wasted now.

You had to knock on the hotel room door, and you hoped that you weren't interrupting anything important. “Seto, it's me!” Just in case he assumed the pounding was someone else and ignored it until he was annoyed.

It took him a few moments but he eventually pulled the door open. “What's wrong?” He studied you, probably looking for any injuries, before he glanced around.

“Look at this! My mother, she just, UGH!” You shoved the magazine at him as you entered the room and began to pace. “I can't believe she would do something like this!”

“Don't worry. I already took care of it.” He dropped the magazine into a trash can and moved back to his work area.

“What?” You stopped pacing and stared at him.

“I was notified of the news this morning. It's already being handled.” He picked up his headset from his desk and started putting it back on.

“You heard about it... this morning?” He nodded. “And you didn't think this might be something I would want to _know_?!” You didn't understand. The **moment** you finished reading the article he was the first person you wanted to tell about it. Why wouldn't he share news like this with you?

“It didn't seem important.” His hand was hovering over his phone. “We can discuss this later, but right now I have a conference on hold.”

“But—”

“Later.” His voice was firm and made it clear he wasn't about to argue with you over the matter. Then he pressed a button. “Suzuki, I believe you were trying to persuade me to give your department a bigger budget?”

You stepped back and away from him until you ran into a table. You placed a hand down on the table to steady yourself. _He didn't think it was important to tell you about your mother_.

You were trying to open up to him, trying to get to know him, trying to be part of his life. You were trying so hard to figure out how to _belong_ , but he didn't need you. He gave you a small portion of his life, and that didn't include being his confidant.

You kept your composure as you steadily walked into the bedroom. He wasn't required to tell you everything. He wasn't the type of person who shared their feelings.

You would have expected him to at least share news that included you! It felt like he didn't want to talk to you, and that hurt.

You threw your stuff into a purse and left the hotel room. Kaiba was involved in his conference so he didn't even notice. Of course you closed the door slowly so he wouldn't hear it as it shut. It was too difficult to stay in that room with nothing to do right now. It didn't matter that he didn't see a problem with his actions. You still felt betrayed.

The moment you left the hotel you leaned against the wall of the building and just stood there trying to compose yourself. The streets of Tokyo were busy and the crowds of people walking by helped. It was nice to be just a person in the crowd. Nobody expected anything from you and you didn't expect anything from any of them.

You just started walking in the direction that felt the most appealing. The new phone that Kaiba purchased for you had a GPS system so you weren't worried that you would get lost. For now you could just walk until you found somewhere that looked interesting.

A bookstore-slash-cafe eventually caught your attention and the moment you walked in you knew that it was the perfect place to relax and forget about the world. You spent some time just browsing the shelves and looking at any book that caught your eye.

It was tricky to find something to read. Things that you might normally pick up just weren't keeping your attention. You didn't feel like reading them. It wasn't until you found yourself in the romance section that you realized what the problem was.

You never considered yourself a hopeless romantic, love at first sight wasn't something you expected, but you did always think that you would marry a man who adored you. You always saw yourself ending up in one of those happily ever after marriages.

If you couldn't have the real thing, then you would lose yourself reading about it.

Your phone rang as you were selecting a book, and you didn't bother looking at the caller ID before you answered it. Almost nobody had your new number. “Hello?”

“Where are you? I showed up at the hotel and Seto doesn't know where you went?”

You felt bad for ditching Mokuba, but his call made you smile. You couldn't just disappear. Someone would notice if you disappeared and that wasn't something that everyone could say. “I'm sorry, Mokuba. Can we hang out a little later?”

“You really shouldn't be alone in Tokyo.” Mokuba sounded incredibly protective and you smiled. He was the brother that you always wanted. Someone who would look out for you and worry about your well-being.

“Don't worry. I'm just sitting in a little cafe with a book. I'll sit in a corner table so nobody pays attention to me.” You wondered if he knew about the article too. “Did Seto mention the magazine article to you?”

“Nooooooo.” Then he yelled, “Seto! What's this about a magazine article?!”

You let him listen to Kaiba's response as you decided between two trashy bodice rippers. You were in the mood for romance, but not the realistic sort of romance. Reading about something you could never have was easier when it was unrealistic rather than unobtainable.

Mokuba called your name to get your attention.

You put away the novel with the shirtless man and selected the one with the least offensive cover. That way Kaiba wouldn't judge you when he noticed your new reading material. “Yeah?”

“Seto just told me about your mom. Text me where you are and I'll come pick you up in a few hours okay? But don't go anywhere. You were just in the news today and it isn't safe.”

“Sure, sure.” You were secretly pleased at Mokuba's concern. It was exactly how you wanted a big brother to treat you. “I'll see you in a while.”

“Bye!”

You paid for the book, bought a coffee, and settled into a table to read. It was nice to have a few hours to yourself for reading. When you were single and lived alone in your tiny apartment you used to do this all the time. The workers at the cafe near your old apartment knew all your favorite drinks and sometimes even gave you recommendations based on what you were reading.

You should go back there sometime to just read. You missed them.

The novel that you selected ended up being a nice escape. You weren't sure if it was supposed to be amusing, but reading about the many conquests of Alexander the Great Lover made you laugh. It was ridiculous how these girls just kept swooning over him, and you loved it. Then Charlotte entered the stage and you kept shaking your head at the measures that he took to get her attention.

When Alexander tried to sneak into Charlotte's bedchambers, only to end up in her grandfather's bed, you couldn't stop yourself from bursting into laughter. When you finally settled into quiet snickers you gave the people around you an apologetic smile. Some of them were glaring at you for disrupting the silence. “Sorry.”

One woman in particular seemed especially annoyed with you. The rest of the people in the cafe went back to their books or work but she continued to glare. You decided to just ignore her and go back to your book.

Someone said your name and you reflexively looked up. It was that woman, and you quickly looked back down again, hoping that she didn't know who you were. She walked over to your table, still glaring, and you started to get nervous.

“Can I help you?”

She repeated your name, this time adding your new last name, Kaiba, to the end.

“No. I'm sorry. I think you have the wrong person.”

“I don't think I do. I _just_ read that article about you this morning!” She didn't bother keeping her voice down and people were starting to look at her. “You're such a horrible woman. Ignoring your parents and then marrying Seto Kaiba for his money. If you were my daughter I would give you a good beating!”

Was she seriously attacking you in a public location like this? You didn't know what to say to her. She hardly knew you but she seemed to already have her mind set. She already thought that she knew you.

_What would Seto say_? You leaned back in your seat, trying to emulate his casual nonchalance.

“What?! You have nothing to say for yourself?!” she screeched.

“I'm not going to bother wasting words on someone as unintelligent as you.” As the words came out of your mouth, you could hear Kaiba's voice saying them in your head. You couldn't remember the circumstances behind those words, but you did remember hearing him say that to someone less than a week ago.

She gaped at you. Probably shocked at your blatant rudeness. It was an expression that people frequently directed at Kaiba and you knew that you had maybe a minute to leave before she recovered. You gathered your stuff and left. The moment you made it outside you used the crowd to escape from the woman. Hopefully she wasn't following you but just in case she was you did your best to weave in and out of groups.

After a bit of walking you slowed to a stop. You felt like anyone would have given up by now, and you didn't see the woman in your quick scan of the area.

Mokuba's earlier warning came back and you pulled out your phone so you could text him. You turned, but you were currently standing in front of a tattoo parlor and you didn't want to wait for him here. You looked at all of the shops nearby and noticed an ice cream store right across the way. You texted Mokuba your new location as you crossed the street. “It's okay if you come join me now,” you added to the text.

His response was nearly instantaneous. “I'll be right there.”

You ordered a scoop of ice cream just so they wouldn't glare at you for sitting around, and settled into one of their tables. The store was full of people with small children and you hoped that none of those mothers were about to go crazy on you.

A man slid into the seat across from you and you were instantly on guard. “I'm saving that seat for someone.”

He smiled. “Well since I doubt the elder Kaiba would ever be seen here, I'm guessing that you're waiting for Mokuba. Am I right?”

“Does it matter? That seat is still taken.” You didn't like him. He was the sort of person that Kaiba would order to get lost.

“They're not here yet.” He casually leaned on the table. “That looks good. Can I have some?”

You pulled your ice cream away from his outstretched hand. “Please go away.”

He laughed and stretched, propping his hands behind his head. “Don't be that way. I'm a friend of Mokuba's.”

You doubted that. He was too creepy. You hoped that he wasn't some sort of insane stalker. You were up to your ears in insanity right now and you really didn't want any more unstable people in your life. You wondered if asking him for his name would encourage him. You could always tell him that Mokuba had never mentioned him, but that probably wouldn't work. If he was a whack job then trying to rationally explain that he was creeping you out wouldn't work either.

You looked at the crowded streets outside. Just standing up and running was a tempting thought, but you didn't know if this man had friends waiting for him outside. You had to be careful.

“Please hurry,” you texted to Mokuba under the table. Then you did your best to ignore the man and just read your book as you waited.

He leaned forward and you quickly slid your chair back.

“Don't be so skittish!” He laughed. “I was just trying to see what you're reading.”

“None of your business.” You folded over the cover so he couldn't see anything.

“I guess a guy can't be friendly in this town.” He stood and you were relieved. “I'm gonna get a cone, you want anything else?”

Damn, he was planning to come back. “No.”

You glared at your book. This was not a good situation. Why wouldn't he just _leave_?

The door opened, the bell above it tinkling as it did so, and you looked up. You felt incredibly relieved to see Mokuba standing in the doorway.

His eyes swept over the store and landed on the man who was previously sitting across from you. Mokuba strode over to the register, glaring at the creepy man.

“Shin, you bastard!”


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short but A LOT happens in a very small time frame. I hope nobody hates me after this one...

“Shin you bastard!” Mokuba punched the guy's arm, but he didn't seem to put much force behind it. “You're in town and you didn't call me?”

The man, Shin, just grinned and scratched the back of his head. “Sorry man. Just came back last night.”

You just stared at the two men as they began talking in front of the register. The man now known as Shin waited as Mokuba ordered something. Then they both came back to your table with their own ice cream.

“You guys are friends?” That was unexpected. When Shin told you that he knew Mokuba, you just assumed he was lying to you.

“We've worked together,” Mokuba informed you. “Shin is a model.”

“A fantastic model,” Shin added. “I'm surprised you don't recognize me.”

You wouldn't recognize any models, but you weren't about to say that. “You were acting a little creepy.”

Mokuba started laughing. “Man, I keep telling you that you can't just start talking to people on the street.”

“I'm just being friendly.” Shin pouted. “Most of the time people are okay with it.”

“Yeah, and what about those guys who tried to beat you up?”

Shin crossed his arms. “They were just rude.”

After the experience that you just had with Shin, you thought that you had a pretty good idea why the men probably threatened him. If you were a man, you might have threatened him too. He tried to take some of your ice cream after all. That should warrant at least a stabbing with a spork.

Mokuba turned to you. “You thought that Shin was a weirdo right?” You nodded. “SEE! People don't think you're friendly. They think you're strange.”

Shin was unconvinced. “Whatever. Do you guys have any plans today? There's an awesome party later, you should come with me.”

“Yeah I know.” Mokuba rolled his eyes. “I was invited too.”

“I don't see how. You're so rude,” Shin muttered, just loud enough to be heard.

The two of them began to playfully argue. Watching the way that they interacted was interesting. This was your first time seeing Mokuba interact with someone from his world, the model from this morning didn't count, and you wondered if he was really popular in the fashion industry. Mokuba just seemed like the sort of person who was popular wherever he went.

Maybe it was a result of being Seto Kaiba's little brother? Seto seemed to inspire fear wherever he went. Maybe Mokuba began making friends with everyone to combat that?

Now you were over thinking things.

“Hey Mokuba?” you interrupted them. “Some woman started screaming at me in the bookstore. I'd rather not stay out in public right now.”

Mokuba frowned. “Really? That's horrible!”

He was about to say more, but your phone started ringing. “One sec. It's probably your brother.” You pulled it out of your bag. “Yes?”

“Is Mokuba with you?” Straight to the point, as always.

“Yeah, why?”

“Have him take you back to the hotel room. Your father is here.”

Seto sounded vaguely irritated by the situation, but you didn't think he fully understood the implications of his words. “My father? There? With you?”

“Yes. I figured you might want to deal with him after that fit you threw this morning, but if you want I'll get rid of him.”

He was leaving it up to you. That was nice.

Your father didn't bother you like your mother did. In fact, you almost never saw your father. He often worked and always let your mother run the household as she chose. You learned from an early age that he mostly didn't care what was going on in your life.

“I'll head over now,” you finally told Seto. “I'm still not happy with you.”

There was silence on the other end for a moment, and you almost thought that he hung up. “We'll talk later. Come deal with your father.”

You stared down at the table. His words were disappointing, but not unexpected. You hoped that this wouldn't be a trend for the rest of your life. “Fine.” You hung up and met Mokuba's expectant eyes. “Time to get to the hotel. Seto demands my presence.”

“Aw man!” Shin slapped Mokuba's shoulder. “That's disappointing, but I'll see you later right?”

“Yeah. We're going to be at that party, looking better than you.”

You just rolled your eyes at the two boys and stood. Shin parted ways with the two of you at the door, but not before calling out a reminder that you all needed to do shots together later.

“So what's the emergency?” Mokuba asked once the two of you were in his car and couldn't be eavesdropped on.

“The man who raised me is sitting with your brother right now.”

“Shit!” Mokuba's eyes were wide. “So we should hurry before there's a homicide?”

You shrugged. “Honestly, I don't know. I would be surprised if my father recognized a picture of me so the fact that he's there is confusing.”

Mokuba accelerated through a yellow light. “So, how come we didn't hear about your parents until recently?”

You stared at him. “You're seriously asking that now?”

Mokuba was too busy weaving in and out of traffic to look at you. “Well, since the subject is already on the table, when's a better time?”

“Never.” You huffed. “I just haven't felt like I actually had parents for a long time. I know you and Seto lost your parents, so it was hard for Seto to understand why I would just reject mine, but my father was never a real father and my mother treated me more like a robot than a human. Do this, be that. She tried to turn me into someone who didn't know how to think for herself and my father just took a backseat. I'll never have a decent relationship with them.”

Mokuba didn't say anything after that, and you were grateful. You should really have this talk with Seto before you had it with Mokuba. It was _easier_ to talk to Mokuba, but Seto deserved to know first.

Mokuba dropped you off in front of the hotel with a warning that he would be back later to pick you up for the party.

You quickly made your way up to your hotel room. You didn't know what you would find there, but you were sure that it wouldn't be good.

You entered the room to find Seto staring daggers at your father. Ever the lawyer, your father had his poker face on, but you could tell that he was staring at the space above Seto's head rather than directly at Seto.

Their heads both turned when they heard you walk in, and you almost ran out when your father threw himself on the floor in front of you. At first you thought that he was attacking you, and you jumped back, but he just fell to the floor at your feet.

“Please come back home!” he begged on his hands and knees.

Your eyes went wide, and your jaw dropped. Was this... really your father? You looked at Seto, wanting answers, but the shocked look on his face said that he didn't know what the hell your father was doing either.

“No.” Considering the fact that your father was currently still on his hands and knees that short response felt a little harsh. “Thank you,” you added as an afterthought. You pressed yourself to the wall and tried to walk around him and over to Seto, but your father grabbed your ankles.

“You don't understand! We need you.”

You didn't want to kick the man, but this was not a comfortable position. “Yeah? When's my birthday?”

“Uh, January first?”

“Wrong.” You were about to supply him with the right answer, but Seto beat you to it.

You couldn't stop yourself from staring at him in shock. “How do you know my birthday?”

“It was on all your paperwork.”

“Yeah, but that doesn't explain how you have it memorized.” You looked down at your father. “You've been my father for the past twenty-six years. He's been my husband for a matter of weeks.” You managed to escape his grip and you hurried over to where Seto was sitting. It was safe near him; he scared people. “He knows my birthday. You lose.”

“But we need you!” Your father stood, and he might have grabbed at you again, but you were already sitting with Seto. He changed tactics. “Mr. Kaiba, please give us our daughter back.”

Seto just stared at him in disgust. “If you had a daughter, I might consider it. You don't.” Seto had tougher skin than anyone in Japan. You didn't know what your father's goals were but Seto would never side with him. He would be your shield against them no matter what.

You couldn't help but wonder what had your father in such a state. He had ignored you for most of your life... why was he here? Maybe your mother had bullied him into it? “Did that woman send you?”

“No. No.” He muttered. “She doesn't know I'm here. She's convinced she can force you back.” He looked up at Seto, and you realized that he was sizing Seto up. The lawyer in him was trying to analyze Seto. “I've heard about Seto Kaiba from other lawyers. Your mother is in over her head.”

That was a delightful thing to hear. You proudly snuggled into Seto's side. The idea that Seto could ruin your mother was better than your favorite candy.

“Mr. Kaiba, you could have any number of women. I don't see why you bother keeping my daughter when there are better women out there. Miss. Japan is supposed to be a fan of yours.”

“I think it's time for you to leave now,” Seto suggested to your father. “If it's true that there are better women out there, then you and your offensive wife can find yourselves another daughter and leave us alone.”

“BUT HE WANTS HER!” your father shouted.

Seto's eyes narrowed while yours widened. That didn't sound good. You would have asked who wanted you, but Seto was faster.

Your father sighed and sank into a chair. “Shinji Watanabe.”

You wrinkled your nose. If you were remembering correctly, Shinji Watanabe was **old**. Some ancient client of your father who often tried to give you candy. Of course your mother usually took it away from you.

“The yakuza boss?” Seto asked.

Your disgust with the man's age gave way to alarm. “The what now?” You looked at your father. “No, he's just some perverted old man right?”

“No. Mr. Kaiba has it right.” Your father slumped over. “I owe Mr. Watanabe a favor, and he took an interest in you a few years back. When you ran off, we had to make up excuses, but he saw you in the newspapers and now he's threatening us. He thinks we broke an agreement with him.”

“I'm sorry.” You didn't quite understand. “You sold me to a Yakuza boss?! A Yakuza boss who is like SIXTY YEARS OLD?!” You didn't even realize you were digging your nails into Seto's leg until he pried your hand off of him. You clenched your hands. “SIXTY!” You didn't even know what to think. You knew your parents were lost causes as far as family was concerned, but you never expected them to **sell you off to the highest bidder**!

“How much do you owe Watanabe?” Seto demanded.

Your father didn't look up. “It's not a matter of money.”

“Bullshit. Everything is about money.”

“Oh no.” Your father's head was shaking almost violently. “I got a few of his... _colleagues_ put in jail. I didn't know who they were! He was going to kill me, but I guess he had my family watched first, maybe thinking he would get to me through them or something.” Your father looked up at you, but he seemed to be looking through you. “She was about fourteen at the time and her mother was raising her to be a proper lady. I guess he saw something in her because he came into my office one day, pointed a gun at my head and said that I'd better promise to give her to him once she was old enough. HE HAD A GUN! What would you have done?!”

Seto didn't hide his disgust. “You're pathetic. Get out of my sight.”

Your father tried to protest, but Seto wouldn't hear any of it. “ **Now.** Or you're leaving through the window.” Seto stood. His threat wasn't empty.

Your father must have figured that out because he ran out of the room.

“Pathetic.” Seto muttered as he locked the door behind him. He came back to sit with you. “Are you okay?”

“I think so... I mean...” You honestly didn't know the answer to that question. “ **Who** , exactly, is Shinji Watanabe?”

Seto sat down next to you, and he seemed reluctant to tell you. That worried you.

“Seto.” You put your hand on his arm. “You can't keep me out of the loop. It's like what you did this morning. I don't like it and I **deserve** to know. It's my life too.”

“Fine.” He frowned. “He leads the third largest gang in the Sumiyoshi-kai.”

Your hand fell to your side. The Sumiyoshi-kai, as a collective, was the second largest Yakuza group. “Oh my God.”

Seto grabbed your face and forced you to look at him. “Nothing is going to happen to you. I won't let anyone take you from me.”

He tried to reassure you, but you couldn't understand a word he was saying anymore. How could this ever end well?


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's totally canon that Kaiba has had dealings with the mafia (I believe, the point is that he's dealt with an organized crime syndicate before and I'm too lazy to look up which one at the moment). Which is why I think he might not be above dealing with the Yakuza either.  
>   
> Enjoy~!

Seto only left you for a few moments to get his laptop and cellphone before he rejoined you on the couch. He wrapped an arm around you as he made a phone call. You curled against his side and hoped that he was taking care of the problem.

"You're not working are you?” You wouldn't be very happy with him if he decided to work right after discovering that you were being targeted by some Yakuza boss.

“No. I'm handling this situation.” Then he shushed you as he began talking to someone over the phone. “I hear one of your underlings has his eyes on my wife.”

You turned, leaning on Seto's chest with your hands as you dedicated your attention to what he was saying. You were curious and wanted to know who he was talking to.

“I don't **care** if he had his eyes on her before I married her. She's mine. If anything happens to her, I might consider giving money to the Yamaguchi-gumi.” 

He listened to the voice on the other end for a moment.

“That's unacceptable. Call your man off or else.” He hung up. 

You tugged on his shirt to get his attention. “Who was that?” 

Now that you were leaning on him instead of against him, he pulled you closer so that you were almost sitting in his lap. “Just the leader of the Sumiyoshi-kai.” 

That didn't quite make sense to you. “Shinji Watanabe? You know him?”

“No. The leader of the entire organization. Watanabe might be the leader of a section of the group, but he still answers to the leader of the organization. I happen to know his number.” Seto sounded far too smug.

“You have connections with the Yakuza?” You would have pulled away from him, but his arm was still wrapped around you and holding you tightly against him. 

“Of course. I pay them a small fee to take care of my enemies for me. It saves me the trouble, and since they do business with me, they don't mess with my business. It's a mutually beneficial business relationship.” 

You weren't sure how you felt about that. It was definitely new information to you. You just stared down at him and tried to process all of it. The Yakuza were something foreign. They were people that you occasionally saw stories about on the news, but they never directly affected your life. Now you had a Yakuza boss who wanted you and a husband who had dealings with them. 

“Isn't it scary?” you asked Seto.

Your noses almost touched as Seto looked directly at you. The reminder that you were currently pressed against him almost distracted you. 

“What do you mean?”

“Dealing with the Yakuza,” you elaborated. “Don't you worry that they might try to shoot you or something?”

He smirked. “I know that they might try to shoot me, but I also know that they would only do that if they had something to gain from it. They don't.”

“And you don't think someone might try to pay them to kill you?” You had no illusions about your husband. He could be a jerk, and a lot of people hated him. There were people out there who would pay to see him dead. It was a fact.

“Are you worried about me?” He sounded so smug. 

“No.” Okay, you were a little worried. You didn't want him to die. You just weren't going to tell him that.

He reached up and his hand slid around to rest on the back of your neck. “Admit it. You're worried about me.”

His eyes stayed locked with yours as he leaned forward until he was almost kissing you. He paused when his lips were just short of touching your own. 

“Just a little,” you whispered before the distance closed. 

As your lips met, the hand on the back of your neck slid up and into your hair. Your hands began to clutch at the front of his shirt, and you found yourself leaning into the kiss. 

“Hey guys—WOAH!” 

Surprised by the interruption, you twisted away from Seto and landed back down in the space next to him. 

“Did I interrupt something?” Mokuba was standing near the door, looking between you and Seto with a satisfied expression.

“Yes.” 

You felt your face heat up at Seto's response. It was just a kiss, and it wasn't about to turn into anything more! 

Mokuba remained unfazed. “Well, you'll just have to play with your wife later. She needs to get ready to go out with me.” He pulled your hands away from your cheeks and began to tug you off the couch. “C'mon. You need to change into something sexier!”

“She's not going out tonight, Mokuba.” Seto's arm wrapped around your waist, keeping you firmly pinned to his side despite Mokuba's tugging. 

“Why not?! The two of you can have sex any night!” 

The two brothers were having a tug of war over you, but you didn't like the idea of getting pulled into pieces. “I want to go out with Mokuba tonight,” you interrupted before they could get too into their argument. You pulled your arms free from Mokuba's grasp so that you could twist around to face Seto. It was difficult with his arm wrapped so tightly around your waist, but you slid your legs up and underneath you until you were perched on them as you faced him. “It'll be nice to have a distraction, Seto.” 

He looked away from you. “It's too dangerous right now.” 

Tentatively, you placed your hands back on his shoulders and moved forward so you were leaning on him again. “Please? It was dangerous this morning, too, but we just didn't know it.”

“What's going on?”

You ignored Mokuba's interruption as you tried to convince Seto to let you go out. Partying with Mokuba wasn't high on the list of things that you normally wanted to do, but tonight, it would be nice to just get out and pretend to be a normal girl. “I can't sit here while you work all night. I just can't.” 

Mokuba was getting tired of being ignored. “I'll be in your room picking out an outfit. I'm coming back when I'm done, and I don't want to find the two of you in a compromising position again.”

Seto waited until Mokuba was in the other room before turning his attention back to you. “Do you really want to go? Or are you just saying that for Mokuba's benefit?”

You wondered if it was really that obvious how uncomfortable you were by some of the things Mokuba dragged you into doing. Going out to parties was one thing, but the parties that Mokuba liked to frequent were on a different level. He liked to hang out with people who were rich or famous. Sometimes his friends were both. “Yeah, I just don't want to think about this entire mess with Watanabe tonight.” Interacting with Mokuba's friends would be a nice distraction, and if that failed, you could always do a few shots. 

“Fine, but I'll be going with you.”

You pulled away, surprised. “Do you have time for that?” 

“Of course not, but Mokuba can't keep an eye on you. He'll get too distracted by the women throwing themselves at him.” 

“I heard that!” Mokuba stomped back into the room. “And you know I can't really keep an eye on her if I don't know what's going on.”

You gave Seto a quick kiss on the cheek before removing yourself from his grasp and standing. “You can fill Mokuba in on the details. I think you understand it better than I do. I'll just go get changed.” 

“Put on the dress that I laid out for you,” Mokuba ordered as you walked past him.

You just shook your head. He was almost as controlling as his brother. Both Kaiba boys liked things to be exactly the way they wanted. You were convinced that it was a side effect of growing up with an obscene amount of money. You closed the bedroom door behind you and tried not to listen to the conversation going on in the other room. Seto was telling Mokuba about your father's visit, and you didn't need to relive the experience. Instead, you focused on the outfit that Mokuba had set aside for you. The dress on the bed was on the short side, but at least it wasn't clingy. You would be okay with wearing it for the night, especially since Seto would be by your side to fend off the perverts.

By the time you were done changing, Mokuba was completely filled in on everything that was happening. He even went out of his way to assure you that you would be perfectly safe at the party that he was taking you to tonight. Then he insisted on helping Seto get ready for the party. Not wanting to miss out on the show, you perched on the bed as you watched him pick out clothes for Seto to wear. It was amusing to listen to Mokuba give Seto the same lecture that he gave you about not packing enough clothing. 

Mokuba was willing to let Seto just wear the black pants that he was already wearing but declared that he needed a different shirt. He tossed a basic white button-up at Seto, and you stared as Seto discarded his current shirt to put on the button-up. Sure you _could_ leave the room and let your husband change in private, but you were enjoying the show more than you wanted to admit. 

Mokuba shook his head once Seto had on the button-up. “Nah, you look like a waiter in that.” He went back to looking through all the clothing. “Why don't you have any normal clothes?!” 

“I'm on a _business_ trip, Mokuba.” Seto unbuttoned the shirt and tossed it onto the bed next to you. His eyes connected with yours. Then he smirked at you, and you knew that he'd noticed your staring. Darn. You were kind of hoping that he wouldn't notice. His ego didn't need the boost. 

“Here.” Mokuba tossed a black button-up at Seto. “You're going to look a little too formal, but whatever. I doubt you'll let me take you shopping so there's nothing we can do about it.” 

Mokuba joined you on the bed as Seto put on the shirt. “So do you wanna help me get him drunk tonight?”

You bit your lip as you glanced over at Seto. “I doubt I can. I think he can drink me under the table.” 

“I'm right here,” Seto drawled. 

Mokuba just winked at you. 

You weren't entirely sure what was going to happen tonight, but it was already looking interesting. The last time you went out with Seto felt like it happened ages ago, and you were much more comfortable around him now than you were then. 

The three of you went out for dinner before the party. Seto overruled Mokuba's choice of restaurant, so you ended up at a decently nice restaurant instead of wherever Mokuba initially wanted to eat. Not that you didn't think that Mokuba would have gone to anything that wasn't decent. Mokuba's choice of restaurant just would have had a far younger and louder clientele than Seto's did.

By the time you arrived at the party with the two brothers, it was already in full swing. You could hear the music from down the block, and people were lined up outside trying to get in. Seto had your hand in his own, and the two of you stayed close behind Mokuba. The Kaiba brothers were both well known, and Mokuba was on the list, so it was easy enough for them to get in. Since you were with them, the bouncer didn't even look twice at you.

Then you were inside, and there were bodies everywhere. The party was being held in a club that was rented out for the night, and it seemed to be packed with people. People were dancing and moving to the music all over the place, and the crowd at the bar was competing for the limited attention of the bartenders. 

“MOKUBA!” You didn't know the girl who was currently giving Mokuba a giant hug. He pulled away and started talking to her, but he didn't introduce you, which meant that she wasn't really a close friend. 

"Do you want to get a drink?" you shouted over the music. "I know you don't like dancing."

He said something, but you couldn't make it out. You pressed closer to him. "What?!"

He leaned down so his mouth was next to your ear. "I don't like parties. Period."

That wasn't surprising. Well, if he didn't care what the two of you did, then you were going to dance. You grabbed his hand so you wouldn't get separated as you pulled him into the crowd. He didn't resist your lead, and you moved your hips to the beat as you walked. It didn't take long before Seto released your hand and grabbed your hips. He pulled you back and into his body. 

You twisted around to face him and wrapped your arms around his neck. “So I guess you want to dance then.”

“Whatever.”

You just grinned as you danced with him. You still wanted to know where he learned how to dance. Of course, he might not have learned anywhere, it really was just a matter of moving your hips, but he was decent at it. 

You actually liked dancing. In college, you used to go out with your friends all the time because you were so excited about being free from your parents. In comparison to then, it was kind of nice to dance with Seto instead of all of those faceless boys. It was nice to be involved with someone and have fun with them.

Maybe it was because of your earlier moment with him, or maybe the music was already affecting you, but you pulled Seto down so you could kiss his neck. You worked your way up. When you nibbled on his earlobe, he sharply pulled away from you.

“You'll regret that,” he warned.

“I don't regret it yet.” 

He leaned forward and you tilted your head back so that he could kiss you easier. His lips bypassed yours and went straight for your neck. Your mouth fell into an 'o' as he latched onto your neck. He sucked on your neck as his hands kept your hips moving. He was pulling all of your strings so expertly that you couldn't think. You could only feel his lips on your neck and his body pressed against yours.

By the time he pulled away from your neck, your knees were putty, and you just knew that there would be a mark there tomorrow morning. He had the cockiest smirk you'd ever seen on his face. He knew how his actions were affecting you. Somehow, that made him even more attractive.

You threw caution to the wind and pulled him into a kiss. At this point, if you were still dancing, it was **only** because his hands were on your hips and guiding them. Now you were more concerned with how soft his hair felt as you tugged on it. 

The moment you tugged on his hair, one of his hands slid down to grab your rear. He squeezed your butt, pulling your hips closer in the process, and elicited a gasp from you. His other hand found your hair, and soon he was repositioning your head to give himself better control over the kiss. 

He pulled away, and you whimpered slightly. Thankfully not so loud that he would have heard it over the music. You were about to try to lure him back into the kiss, but then you realized that he was paying attention to someone else. You followed the line of his vision to find Mokuba standing just behind him and shouting into his ear. 

It sounded like Mokuba was saying something about going upstairs. Then Mokuba began to wade through the crowd, and Seto followed him, tugging you along. It was a little bit irritating that you kept getting interrupted while you were kissing Seto, but since you didn't want to take things any further than some kissing right now, it was probably a good thing. 

Mokuba led the two of you behind the bar. There was a doorway there, and a girl was standing next to it with a muscular man right behind her. She smiled at Mokuba, nodded at Seto, and then raised an eyebrow at you. Mokuba said something to her that you couldn't hear, but you did note the way her eyes shifted between you and Seto. She nodded and stepped aside, and the man behind her pulled open the door. 

It opened to reveal a poorly-lit, narrow stairway. Neither Mokuba nor Seto seemed to have any trouble going up those stairs so you allowed yourself to be pulled up behind them. The music from the party seemed to become vague background noise the moment the door slammed shut behind you. The stairs were fairly short, and when Mokuba pushed open the door at the top, you could hear music playing again. This time the music was much softer and complimented by the murmur of voices. 

That murmur was interrupted by a shout. “Mokuba! You made it up here!”

Once you were through the doorway, you looked around Seto's broad chest and saw Shin. He was holding Mokuba by the shoulder and congratulating him on making it past all the women down below. 

Mokuba just laughed. “I had to find you so we could do shots right?”

"Right!” Then Shin looked past Mokuba. “Kaiba! Nice to see you again!” He held out his hand for a high-five. 

Seto simply stared at it. “We've met before?”

“Yeah. Remember that one time I was in your pants?”

Your attention was focused on Shin. “What now?”

Shin looked over to you. “Hey, you made it too!” He grinned.

“Yes, yes. Back to being in Seto's pants now. What are we talking about?”

Mokuba shoved Shin playfully. “Don't worry. He stole my brother's pants once because they fit him better than mine do.”

You glanced between Seto and Mokuba. They seemed about the same size to you.

“You really should have been a model, Kaiba.” Shin was shaking his head. “Business is such a waste of those good looks and long, slender legs.” 

You couldn't stop yourself from letting out a chuckle at the thought of Seto as a model. 

Seto seemed tired of the conversation, or perhaps he didn't like where it was heading. He pulled you away from Shin and Mokuba and over to an empty couch. 

Now that you weren't distracted by Shin, you were able to look around at the room. The upstairs room had far fewer people in it. That was probably the result of the guard at the base of the stairs. The people up here were probably either friends with whoever was holding the party--you felt a little bit bad for not knowing who that was--or just famous enough that nobody would tell them no. 

There was a bar up here too, but it wasn't nearly as busy. The music wasn't as loud. People didn't seem to be dancing either. There were couches and low tables grouped together around the room. This seemed to be the place where people could talk and drink without all of the chaos of the party below. 

You fell onto the couch next to Seto and leaned against him. “Do you know who the party-thrower is?”

He shrugged. “I didn't ask Mokuba.” 

Well, you couldn't say you expected him to know. He really was just here to keep you company.

Mokuba and Shin joined the two of you, setting down a tray of full shot glasses on the table and sitting on the adjacent couch. They both announced that it was time for shots and Seto groaned. 

“C'mon! Don't wimp out Seto!” Mokuba knew how to manipulate his brother into doing the shots, but he had no idea how to manipulate you.

You did one shot with the three men, and you were done for the night. Given everything that kept happening between you and Seto, it was important for you to keep your head tonight. You didn't want to do anything with him that you would regret... again.

Mokuba tried to wheedle you into doing another one. He failed, but doubled his efforts the moment Seto announced that he would only do as many shots as you did.

Then a chorus of, 'Happy Birthday!'s interrupted Mokuba's attempts to convince you to change your mind and his attention shot over to the room's entrance. 

“Mayako!” he called out to the woman at the door. “Come over here!” 

The woman held up a single finger, indicating to Mokuba that she would be over in a moment, before continuing her conversation. She was tall and thin, probably a model, which would explain how Mokuba knew her.

“Mayako Tanaka?” Seto asked, studying the woman across the room.

You felt a tinge of jealousy as Seto gazed at the woman thoughtfully. He didn't seem to be admiring her, but if he were, you wouldn't blame him. She was attractive. You nestled deeper into his side.

“Yeah, and I know what you're thinking Seto, but I don't think she's dating him anymore.”

Mokuba's words raised a red flag in your head. Why would Seto care about who Mayako was dating? Your thoughts must have been obvious because Mokuba picked up on them. 

“You're looking worried, little sister,” he teased. 

“Am not. I have nothing to be worried about.”

Seto draped his arm around your shoulders. “Don't make her worry,” he scolded Mokuba. He looked down at you. “Mayako was in the news recently because of a boyfriend who shot her stalker. I don't know the details, and I don't care, but I do remember seeing the article. She was dating a man in a Yakuza group.” Seto looked like he might say more, but the woman in question was now walking over to your little group. That was okay. His brief explanation was enough. It made sense. Seto would be more worried about anyone connected to the Yakuza in any way tonight, so of course he would be curious about Mayako.

“Mokuba, Shin, it's delightful to see you both! I thought that you were out of town, Shin?” 

“Just came back in time for your party darling!”

She smiled. “Good. It wouldn't have been the same without you.” She turned to you and Seto. “Mr. Kaiba, I don't think we've ever met, but Mokuba talks about you often.”

Seto simply nodded. 

She finally turned to you. “I've heard a great deal about you. I'm Mayako Tanaka, it's a pleasure to meet Mokuba's new sister.” She held out her hand.

You shook her hand. “It's nice to meet you, too.” You wanted to ask if she modeled for Mokuba, but you weren't sure if you might accidentally offend her. It didn't matter. She turned away from you and back to Mokuba and Shin before you could open your mouth. “I hope the two of you aren't planning on staying up here all night long. I think both of you owe me a dance.”

They both assured her that they would dance with her.

“How about a birthday toast to you?” Mokuba offered.

“Well, it won't be the first one of the night.” Mayako picked up a shot glass. “I don't think it'll be the last one either!”

Mokuba picked up a glass and motioned that you and Seto should join in. You reached for a glass then. It would be rude to refuse at this point, but you were saved from taking another shot by a man who suddenly rushed up to Mayako.

“We have a problem at the front.” He wasn't talking very loud, but he was too frazzled to be discreet, and you could hear him easily. “I think we're going to need extra security.”


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have about an hour left at work and not really anything to do. I should probably not be posting fanfiction at work but... Oh, well. I'm hoping to finish the next chapter of A Handful of Bulletshells over the weekend so getting this out now will allow me to focus on that. 
> 
> Original author's notes for this chapter:   
> I admittedly rushed to get this chapter out before I went on vacation. I'll probably have some time to go over it and edit it if the pacing feels off or you hate the way the reader reacts let me know so I can fix it.
> 
> Seriously, let me know how you feel about the reader's reaction. I'm going to use your reactions to build a lot of the next chapter.
> 
> Next, Kaiba is older and more mature, but he will always be a dangerous man. Threaten him, or anyone he cares about, and he will handle it. At least, that was my rationale.
> 
> Enjoy~

Mayako's smile disappeared as she listened to her security guard ramble about some men who were causing a problem at the entrance. “I already arranged for extra security to be present tonight. They're not waving around guns are they?”

“I... um...” The man was clearly nervous. “Hideyoshi seems to think that's a possibility. He wants to know if we should call the police.”

Mayako sighed and looked down at the glass she was holding. She tilted it, swishing the liquid without spilling it. Then she downed the shot. She slammed the glass back down onto the table before giving Mokuba and Shin an apologetic smile. “If you'll excuse me, I have some things that need to be dealt with.”

“Stop,” Kaiba ordered as she began to get up.

Mayako raised an eyebrow at him but settled back into her seat. “What?”

“The group at the entrance. Are they friends of your boyfriend?”

“ _Ex_ boyfriend,” Mayako corrected, putting extra emphasis on the 'ex'. “I can't be sure, but yes, probably. He might even be there trying to get in.”

“He's not in jail?”

Mayako leaned back and crossed her arms. “He _was_. He's out on bail.”

That was all Kaiba needed to know. He ordered Mokuba to keep an eye on you before getting up and storming over to the stairs.

You watched him leave with a sense of dread. “Mokuba, what is he doing?” You might not be fully proficient at reading Kaiba yet, but Mokuba always knew what he was thinking.

“Don't worry. He's going to take care of it.”

You glanced over at the door to the stairs. You told yourself that you couldn't help Kaiba with the issue downstairs. If he left you up here, then he probably meant for you to stay up here while he dealt with the issue.

“I'm so happy you brought your brother, Mokuba.” The couch cushions compressed as Mayako threw herself into the space next to you. She leaned toward you, and when you turned to face her, you felt like her face was too close. “It's nice having a man who can take care of problems, isn't it?”

“I suppose so.” You hoped that she wasn't going to try to get Kaiba's attention. It probably wouldn't end well for her.

She leaned back into the couch, frowning. “My ex took care of my problems. Then he took it too far and became a problem.” She dramatically sighed. “Are you sure you don't want to date me, Mokuba?”

“Not again,” Shin muttered. He stood and announced that he was going to go get another drink. Mokuba and Mayako ignored him.

“I already told you that I'd date you.” Mokuba winked.

“Yeah, and what about all the other girls you're seeing?” Mayako crossed her arms, but she was smiling.

Mokuba lifted his hands in mock surrender. “What do you want me to do? Deprive all the other lovely ladies of the pleasure of my company?”

“Yes.”

You were beginning to understand why Shin wandered away. The conversation felt like a routine where they both knew what lines were coming next.

“Now, now. You can't be selfish. I have to share myself with the world.”

Mayako picked up the shot glass that Kaiba left on the table. She held it up in a toast toward Mokuba. “I still say that makes you a whore.” Then she downed the drink.

Mokuba just laughed and toasted her with his own glass. “I'll drink to that!”

Mayako's attention was back on you. “What about you?”

You weren't entirely sure what she was asking. “What about me what?”

“Are you going to drink to what a whore Mokuba is?”

You glanced at Mokuba before looking back at Mayako. This was starting to make you feel awkward. You really didn't want to drink very much tonight. Plus you didn't feel like calling Mokuba a whore. He was your brother, and you didn't want to offend him.

Then you remembered that Kaiba said he would match you drink for drink. “I should wait for Seto to come back.”

“He's taking a while isn't he?” Mokuba was frowning.

Mayako wasn't concerned. “I'm sure your brother is fine. He's got like, bulletproof skin, right?”

You didn't share her flippancy. If Mokuba was starting to get concerned, then you were worried too.

“You know that story isn't true.”

You had no idea what story Mokuba was talking about, so you asked him about it.

“Oh, you know.” Mokuba rolled his eyes. “There's a lot of rumors that float around about my brother. Some of them are really stupid. He's a robot, he has bulletproof skin, he cloned himself...” Mokuba trailed off and shrugged. “People believe whatever.”

“Hey! That bullet thing is believable! People try to shoot your brother all the time.”

Mayako and Mokuba began to argue while you just stared at the door to the stairs. Kaiba still wasn't back, and people tried to shoot him all the time. You couldn't stop yourself from worrying.

You stood. “I'm going to get something else to drink from the bar.” Mokuba probably wouldn't let you go downstairs... Not that he was actually paying attention to you. He was too busy trying to explain the impossibility of bulletproof skin.

You walked toward the bar, just in case Mokuba was actually watching you, before taking a quick turn toward the stairway. You pulled open the door and ducked through the doorway. You were still half expecting Mokuba to try to stop you.

The door slammed behind you, drowning out most of the noise from the upstairs party, and your tension dispersed. As you walked down the stairway, you tried to listen for any suspicious sounds from the downstairs party. Unfortunately that door was just as thick. You could vaguely hear the bass of the music, but the sound of your shoes hitting the stairs was the loudest noise you could hear.

You pushed open the door, and you were relieved to note that the party downstairs still seemed to be going on. Nothing had happened to ruin it.

It took you a moment to figure out which direction the entrance was in. Once you remembered where it was, you cautiously made your way over toward it, keeping an eye out for Kaiba. You didn't want him to go upstairs and worry when he didn't find you sitting with Mokuba.

A hand landed on your shoulder and pulled you around in a semicircle. You prepared an excuse to give Kaiba, but the words died on your lips when you found yourself face-to-face with a stranger.

“Yah look familiah.”

Correction. A very drunk stranger. You pushed his hand off your shoulder. “I'm sorry, but I don't know you.”

“Nah! Nah! I'm sure I've seen ya afore.”

You shook your head and turned away from the man. He probably wouldn't even remember this conversation tomorrow.

He grabbed your arm. “Dun turn away from me!”

You turned your head toward him, ready to convince him to get lost, when you heard the bang of a gunshot. You turned toward the sound. It hadn't come from inside. There were some gasps and shouts from near the door. Whoever had the gun was outside the building.

Kaiba.

You shoved the drunkard and pulled away from him before running toward the door. You didn't care who you ran over on your way. A few shouts and curses followed you as you knocked people over, but you didn't care.

They shouldn't be dancing when Kaiba could be outside bleeding.

People weren't dancing near the entrance. They were crowded near the door, trying to look outside.

It was harder to shove your way through this crowd. Nobody wanted to move. They all wanted to see what was going on outside.

Some of them seemed to be whispering about Mayako's boyfriend and the Yakuza.

You started elbowing and kicking people. Occasionally, you would resort to pulling hair and stepping on toes. Anything to get them to move. A few people took swipes at you, but you dodged them. Somehow you managed to wrestle your way to the front of the crowd. You didn't stop there. Unlike the rest of the crowd, you weren't worried that you might get involved in what was going on outside. Your eyes scanned for Kaiba as you moved out toward the sidewalk.

The moment you caught sight of him standing upright, you stopped in your tracks. He was okay. He wasn't on the ground bleeding. It was such a huge relief that you almost sank into a seated position.

Then you realized that Kaiba had another man in a chokehold. You began to see the bigger picture. There were a bunch of men in a semicircle around Kaiba, he had someone in a chokehold, and he was holding a gun.

He was pressing the gun against the head of the man he was holding. He was threatening the other men and telling them to back off now that they knew who they were dealing with.

The man Kaiba was holding hostage waved his hands in the air. “Look man, I just want to see my girlfriend.”

Kaiba was unimpressed. “She doesn't want to see you. Now tell your buddies to get lost.”

“You don't speak for her, Kaiba. Hell, you don't even know her. I refuse to leave until she sees me.”

“Shut up.” Kaiba tightened his hold. Then he addressed the men around him. “All of you. Get lost. Now.”

“Don't listen to him!”

The men didn't seem to know what to do. They all eyed Kaiba warily but didn't seem to want to disobey the man Kaiba was holding hostage.

“If any of you are still here by the time I count to five, I'll be sure to have Masao Sekigami take care of you.”

“Sekigami don't answer to you!” yelled one of the men.

Kaiba ignored him. “One.”

“I think he's serious.”

“We can't leave Ryo.”

“Two.”

The man in Kaiba's grip began to struggle. “You can't do this man! Nobody listen to him—”

Kaiba shoved the barrel of the gun into his mouth. “Three.”

“Fuck. He's not playing around.”

The men surrounding Kaiba began to back away.

“Four.”

They all started to run.

Kaiba waited until they were gone before pulling the gun out of the other man's mouth. He shoved the man at one of the security guards near the entrance. “Take care of him.” He tossed the gun to another guard.

Then he turned around and noticed you. His eyes locked with yours, and you would have jumped backward if you weren't already pressed against a wall. At some point during the scene that you just witnessed, you had backed up until you were against the building.

Kaiba scowled at you. “What are you doing out here?”

You flinched away from him and looked down at your feet. He was standing directly in front of you now, and you braced yourself. He didn't touch you.

“How much did you see?” His voice was softer this time.

“Not much,” you mumbled. You didn't want to look up at him. You didn't want to see that cold expression on his face. He almost killed a man just now. You didn't know what his intentions were, but that didn't matter. He just shoved a gun into a man's mouth.

You just couldn't look at him right now. It was too much. You were relieved he was okay but terrified of what he could do. “I was worried about you.” Apparently your concern was unjustified. Kaiba could more than handle himself.

His hand cupped your chin and tilted your head up so you were looking directly at him. He didn't look as unemotional, but it still took a lot of willpower to refrain from pulling away from him. Those hands were just wielding a gun.

“Do you want to go back to the hotel?” he finally asked.

Resting might not be a bad idea, but you would have to go back to the hotel alone with him. You were uncomfortable with him right now. “No. It's okay. We should go back up before Mokuba worries about me.” You pulled away from him and began heading back into the party.

He grabbed your arm. You tensed. He released you.

You stood still for a moment, waiting for him to say something. You finally turned back toward him. You wanted to reach out and grab his hand. Treating him like someone who was about to go on a murder spree was wrong. You knew it.

Except you couldn't get rid of the image of him shoving a gun into someone's mouth. It kept you from reaching out for him.

You wanted to say something to him, but you weren't sure what you should say. Asking him to never do something like that again didn't seem appropriate. How much influence did you really have anyway?

“I KNOW YOU!”

You jumped, startled. The man Kaiba handed over to the guards was yelling and pointing at you.

Kaiba stepped in front of you. “Shut him up.”

The man began to laugh like a lunatic. “She your lady, Kaiba? Well not for long. Just you wait. Watanabe is going to come for her! He'll—”

You couldn't listen to this right now. You turned and fled back to the party. It was easier to get lost in the ocean of bodies than deal with this.

Men with guns. You didn't want your life to be full of men with guns. You didn't want to belong to a Yakuza boss. You didn't want a husband who shot someone in the head.

You grabbed a drink from a nearby server and downed it. It was awful, whatever it was, and you looked for something else to get rid of the nasty aftertaste. You made your way over to the bar, the only way to ask for something specific, and ordered your favorite drink. You didn't waste any time finishing that one off either.

An arm wrapped around your waist. “I think we should go upstairs and tell Mokuba that we're leaving.” Kaiba's mouth was next to your ear as he pulled you back into his body.

“You almost killed him!” you accused.

“Having him present threatened your safety, but I wouldn't have killed him unless he gave me no other choice.”

You were two drinks past reason. “You can't just kill someone! You'll get put in jail!” You turned so you could grab the front of his shirt. “I don't want you to go to jail.”

He cupped the side of your face. “Nobody would put me in jail.”

“The police would.”

Kaiba began leading you back to the stairs. “Don't worry about it. Nobody died.”

“Not tonight. Why are you so good with a gun?”

He didn't respond. After a moment you repeated the question, thinking that he just didn't hear it. He still didn't say anything until the two of you were alone on the stairway.

“Tonight isn't the night for that conversation,” he finally said as he helped you up the stairs. “If you remember that question tomorrow, I'll give you an answer.”

You made a mental note to ask him about his experiences with guns tomorrow. You just hoped that you weren't in for a nasty surprise about your husband.  


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The site this was hosted on went down, and I'm not sure when it'll come back up. I have chapters 27 and on but chapters 24-26 are not on my current computer. I was able to get an old computer from my parents, but it only has up to chapter 24. I'll keep looking for chapters 25 and 26. 
> 
> Please enjoy and cross your fingers that I don't have to rewrite the next two chapters.

When you woke up the next morning, you had a nasty headache to remind you of the night before. You remembered everything that happened, including the incident with Kaiba and the gun. You weren't sure if you should consider yourself lucky for remembering, but Seto still owed you an explanation.

You groaned and turned over in bed. The bed was empty, but you could hear the television playing in the other room. That probably meant Mokuba was here. Seto never watched TV. He got all his news from the internet and had no interest in watching any shows.

It was surprising that Mokuba hadn't decided to wake you up, but you were grateful for that small mercy. Your head was killing you.

You carefully sat up. Your head felt like it might implode for a moment as your body adjusted to an upright position. You pushed the covers down and turned to let your legs hang off the side of the bed. There was a note on the night stand with a small container sitting on top of it. You carefully slid the container to the side and unfolded the note so you could read it.

It was written in Kaiba's distinctive scrawl. You weren't sure where he learned how to write, but he had the strangest writing you'd ever seen.

_I have an important meeting I need to attend. I'll be back later, and we can talk then. The box sitting with this note has painkillers in it just in case you have a headache. Don't take more than two._

You reached over and grabbed the container. Popping it open revealed two white pills. Well, he didn't have to tell you to not take more than two if there were only two in the first place. Shaking your head, you placed the container back on the night stand and carefully stood.

Unfortunately, you needed a glass of water before you tried to swallow the pills. It might take you a pathetic amount of time to get that water, walking was a little bit painful. Your head pounded with every step you took.

As you steadily walked over to the door, you considered calling out to Mokuba and asking him to bring you a glass. You almost did, but you didn't think he would. Even if he did, he would probably yell a lot and make your headache worse. You were unsympathetic to Mokuba in the morning, so you couldn't expect him to be sympathetic to your hangover.

You tried to push open one of the bedroom's double doors slowly. You didn't want to get Mokuba's attention before your headache was under control. So you hoped that you would be able to sneak to the little kitchen area of the room. You might have succeeded in your mission if Mokuba had been the one outside your room.

The man waiting right outside your room was not Mokuba. He had a scar running down his cheek. You weren't sure why that was the deciding factor since he looked nothing like Mokuba, but it was.

You tried to pull the door shut again. You could lock it and run. Maybe you could get a window open.

The man was faster. He reached out and grabbed your arm.

“Hey boss! Guess who's awake?”

The man's grip on your arm was too tight. You couldn't break free. You tried to grab the door and use it as leverage. That failed. He managed to pry you off the door and pulled you into the main room.

You opened your mouth to scream, but a hand pressed against it. You flailed, doing your best to damage the man holding you. Your legs kicked out. Your arms swung around. You even tried throwing your head back at him. Nothing worked.

Then your elbow found soft flesh. The man grunted in pain but still managed to maintain his hold on you.

“Let me knock the bitch out, boss.”

No. You struggled harder. You wouldn't let him knock you out.

“Don't be so impatient. She should pass out soon.”

You stopped moving. That didn't sound good. You finally took a moment to look around the room. There were two more thugs. One was standing by the door, and another was standing next to a tied up hotel employee.

The man on the couch was the one who really got your attention. He was dressed in a pair of plain black pants with a white button up shirt. The shirt was only halfway buttoned, revealing a chest full of hair that you would rather not see. The grey hair on his head was slicked back with far too much gel, and his dark brown eyes were trained on you.

“See? She's already calming down.” He grinned, and the light reflected off of his disgusting gold tooth.

You knew him. He was your father's client. The leader of a large group of Yakuza. Shinji Watanabe.

If the man behind you hadn't been holding on to you, you would have collapsed to the floor. Seto... Seto was at a meeting. He couldn't save you, and who knew what Watanabe was panning on doing with you.

You breathed in. Breathed out. In. Out. In. Out. Faster and faster until you just couldn't stop. You were breathing too fast. Your throat was starting to hurt. Your lungs couldn't handle the speed. You couldn't stop. In and out the air went. Faster and faster until you felt like you weren't even breathing at all. You needed air. You weren't getting any air. In. Out. You were breathing. You weren't breathing. You needed to breathe.

“What the hell's the matter with her?”

“She's having a panic attack you moron. Put her down!”

“What if she's fakin—”

“PUT HER DOWN!"

You hit the floor. It hurt and didn't help your breathing. You curled up into a ball, your face between your knees, and tried to breathe properly. You rocked in time to your breathing. Slowly you were able to settle down. Your breathing slowed, and your brain began to work properly again. Wantanabe was here. He was in your hotel room with three thugs.

You didn't know when Seto would be back.

You breathed in and held your breath. There was a man near the door. You breathed out. You could try to run, but you would never be able to get out. You breathed in again, slower this time. You weren't wearing anything but a pair of undies and Seto's shirt. You controlled the air as you breathed out. Your phone was in the bedroom. The bedroom doors had a lock. You breathed in and tried to rock yourself so you could figure out where the thug who dropped you was.

“Is she asleep yet?”

“I don't think so, boss."

That was suspicious, but the thug was moving toward you, and you couldn't stop to think. You jumped up and ran for the bedroom. You made it through the doorway when your hair was grabbed. Your head was yanked back, but you grabbed onto the door. Somehow you managed to swing the door back. It shut, but your hair got caught between the doors. The caught hair didn't matter. You locked the doors.

Then, you braced yourself and grabbed your hair. You pulled it out from between the doors. Some of it snapped, you would have to get a haircut, and it hurt, but you managed to pull it free.

The doors buckled as the man on the other side rammed against them.

You didn't have much time. You dove for your cell phone. The edge of the bed rammed into your thigh as you stumbled into it. The pain registered, but you barely reacted.

The phone was in your hand. You unlocked it, and your fingers slid across the screen, searching for your picture of Seto.

The doors cracked, and you slid right past his picture. You almost started hyperventilating again. Your hand shook as you slid the screen back to Seto's picture and pressed down on it.

It rang.

He was in a meeting.

It rang again.

What if he didn't answer?

It rang once more.

What if his phone was off?

It rang again and went to voicemail. “Leave a message.”

What if Watanabe already got to him? What if he was in danger too? “Seto! Seto! Watanabe is here! He's in the room!” The doors cracked again, and you screamed. “I don't know what to do.” Your eyes began to water. You needed to pull yourself together. Whimpering wouldn't help you.

The doors were falling apart. The man slammed into them once more, and they flew open.

Like a rabbit, you ran straight into the bathroom. You clutched your phone to your chest as you locked the bathroom door behind you. You crawled into the shower and shut the curtain too, even though it provided zero protection.

You curled up on the floor of the shower and looked down at your phone. It was still connected to Kaiba's voicemail. You hung up. Wherever he was, he would be too late. You searched for Mokuba's picture. You should have called him in the first place. Seto turned his phone off when he was in a meeting.

The men were slamming into the bathroom door now. They would catch you eventually. You knew it.

The phone rang once. Then twice. Then Mokuba picked up.

“Hey baby sis!”

“Mokuba! You have to help me! He's here! He's in my room! He's going to catch me!”

Mokuba said your name. The door began to cave in.

“They're almost in!” you screamed.

“CALM DOWN.” Mokuba's voice was loud, but he wasn't yelling at you. “Breathe. I'm getting into my car right now. What's happening? Who is in your room?”

“Watanabe. He's here. I'm in the bathroom.” You screamed as the area around the door's hinges cracked. “They're about to get in!”

Mokuba cursed, and you knew what he was thinking. You were thinking the same thing. He was never going to make it to the hotel in time.

“Listen to me. Are you still there?”

“Yes.”

“Pull off your phone's battery cover. There should be a chip attached to it. Pull the chip off and do your best to hold on to it.”

“What's—”

“Do it now!” Mokuba sounded so much like his older brother that you just silently did what he said.

You popped off the cover and found a chip attached to the inside. You twisted the chip off and put the cover back in place. “Okay. I have it.”

“It's a locator chip. I usually stick mine in my shoe."

Seto would be able to find you if you held onto the chip. That was all you needed to know. You wouldn't let it go. “I don't have a shoe.”

The door was breaking. The men would be inside in minutes. You knew what you needed to do.

You popped the chip into your mouth and tried to swallow it. The chip was about twice the size of a regular pill, and you almost choked the first time. So you dropped your phone and turned on the bath. You tilted your head under the faucet and swallowed a bunch of water, swallowing the chip in the process.

You just hoped it wouldn't short-circuit. Maybe that was something you should have thought of before swallowing it, but it was too late now.

The door slammed open, and even though you were expecting it, you screamed. You backed up and pressed yourself against a wall as the three grunts swarmed the bathroom. One pulled the shower curtain aside, and you just whimpered.

He reached forward and grabbed the front of your shirt. He pulled you up to a standing position before yanking you out of the shower. He shoved you back into the bedroom where Watanabe was holding the pill case in his hands.

“You should have just taken the pills.” He made you sound like some sort of disobedient child. He shook his head as if you were the irrational one, as if you were simply acting out for attention. “I don't suppose you'll swallow them now will you?”

You almost bared your teeth at him but settled for silently glaring. When you were little, you thought of Watanabe as a creepy old man. Now that you knew who he really was, it made him even creepier.

“Then there's nothing we can do. Knock her out.”

You expected one of the men to hit you over the head and braced yourself. Instead, a bunch of wet fabric was shoved against your face. The man shoving it in your face had his other hand on the back of your head, ensuring that you couldn't turn away or struggle.

You didn't have a choice. You had to breathe in that nasty chemical and hope that Kaiba would save you before anything horrible happened.

Hopefully that chip would still work from inside your stomach.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found the chapters! I had to do some looking around, but we are good to go guys! :)
> 
> Meanwhile, this chapter is a little squicky. ): Sorry! 
> 
> (If it helps anyone hate me less for this chapter, I might be posting some Kaiba one shot smut later~ ;D )

As you turned over and began to throw up, you were sure that your body had woken you up for this sole purpose. You hated the feeling of throwing up. Your throat burned and constricted as your stomach tightened on itself. It was even worse when your body felt so weak. Keeping yourself up on your arms was almost impossible while your stomach convulsed. 

It felt like ages before it stopped, and you were left with a disgusting taste in your mouth. You wanted water… or something, anything really, to wash out the taste, but your body felt too drained to move. So you rolled over and landed on your back. At least you hadn’t been lying on the floor. From your position on a seat, you were able to empty the contents of your stomach without getting yourself dirty. 

Of course, the men sitting with you didn’t seem too happy with the fact that you had just vomited all over the floor of their car. Someone was yelling at the driver to stop the car. Then you noticed that Watanabe was in the car. Good. That meant it was probably his. He deserved a vomit-filled car.

You spit off to the side, still wishing you could get rid of the taste in your mouth but also too weak to consider moving. A water bottle was shoved at you, and even though you knew there was a possibility that it was drugged, you grabbed it. Your mouth was too disgusting to be ignored, and what was the worst he could do at this point? Knock you out again? You poured some water into your mouth and swished it around. 

Then you spit the water back out and onto the floor of the car. It served them right. 

Someone grabbed you and dragged you out of the car. The sudden motion made your head swim and your vision blur. You felt like throwing up again, but you tried to smother that urge. While the man had dragged you out of the car, you’d dropped the water bottle. They probably wouldn’t give you another one.

“Are we gonna wait for another car, boss?” 

“What are you? A moron?” Watanabe seemed ready to hit his henchmen. “She’s waking up. We can’t just sit around and wait for another car. I’ll ride in the front.”

You were already awake but decided not to point that out. Instead, you took the moment to try to look at your surroundings. It was difficult. The sun was far too bright, and you couldn’t keep yourself from wincing, but at least you knew that you were no longer in the city. There were far too many trees surrounding the road, and there wasn’t a single building in sight. It wasn’t comforting.

At least cars were going by. You seemed to be standing near a road of some sort. If you could just move your legs, maybe you could get in the way of an oncoming car. If you could wave your arms, maybe you could get someone’s attention. 

Right now, one of the henchmen was supporting you, but he seemed to be getting tired of holding you up. It sounded like they were discussing what to do with you, but it was still hard to concentrate. 

“We could just tie her up.” 

It was almost laughable. They were talking about tying you up, but you couldn’t even stand on your own two legs. 

Then you were moving again. The man holding you dragged you over to the car and shoved you into the front seat. His movements were rough and jerky. You had to fight to keep down the contents of your stomach as you swayed on your feet. At least, your vision was no longer quite as blurry, and inside the vehicle, the sunlight didn’t hurt as much. 

The man stepped away from the car, and you tried to push yourself out of the seat. You really did try, but just moving your arms a little was all you could manage. Then Watanabe was leaning over you, his shirt gaping open to reveal his chest. He grabbed the seat belt and started pulling it across your body, his hand brushing against you as he did so. 

It was too much. You leaned over and vomited onto his shoes. There was nothing left in your stomach but fluids that burned on their way up. They left a nasty taste in your mouth and hurt your throat.

Watanabe swore, shoved you away, and then slapped you. He yelled something about his leather shoes getting ruined before slamming the car door shut. Your back rolled into the seat behind you, and you leaned your head against it. The aftertaste in your mouth almost made your stomach rebel again, and you tried to reach up to wipe your mouth. 

Raising your arm was difficult. It wouldn’t cooperate. It twitched and spasmed before falling back against your thigh. Giving up on moving your hand as high as your head, you leaned down slightly and rolled your shoulder against your mouth. 

You noticed that the driver’s seat was empty, and the keys were still in the ignition. If your body would just listen to you, you could move over to that seat and drive off. 

You tried to reach for the wheel, but you barely got your hand into the next seat. Moving was exhausting. You let your eyes drift shut but tried to stay awake. The car door opened, and you looked over to see Watanabe getting into the driver’s seat. 

He lifted your arm out of his way. “It’ll be just you and me, sweetheart.” He squeezed your hand, and you tried your best to yank it out of his grip. Your best was an absolute failure. He probably didn’t even realize you were trying to pull away as he started up the car.

He rolled down the windows, commenting on the smell. “I bet now you wish that you’d taken those pills, don’t you? Well, don’t worry. I’ve still got a few for our trip.”

Your entire body felt like it was deflating. Those words were ominous. “Truh…uh…ip?” Getting the single word out was difficult, but you were slowly beginning to regain control of your body. 

“Yep. I got some associates in Russia. I already sent ahead my money. Seto Kaiba can’t touch us there.” He released your hand and began to drive. 

You couldn’t let this man get you out of the country. You didn’t know if Kaiba could save you in Russia, but you didn’t want to risk it. Right now was the time to act. Not that you actually could act. You doubted that you could even toss yourself out of the car. 

You began to curl and uncurl your fingers, slowly restoring circulation in your hands. You wiggled your feet and toes. As you began to move your body, you tried not to get Watanabe’s attention. If he knew that you could move, he might drug you again. That was the last thing you wanted. 

By the time Watanabe pulled over the car, you were able to pick up your arm. You were sure that if he got out of the car, you would be able to slide into his seat and drive away. So you braced yourself, but instead of getting out of the car, he reached over and opened the glove compartment. He pulled out a box and grabbed your arm. 

He opened the box, revealing three syringes, and you tried to pull away. He simply dug his fingers into your arm. “Now, now. Don’t struggle. I might hurt you on accident.” He pulled out one of the syringes, and you struggled harder. You reached out, trying to hit him, trying to pull his hair. 

He just brushed off your attacks and jabbed the needle into your arm. You winced in pain, trying to pull your arm away. He maintained his grip on your arm and pushed the liquid into your veins before removing the syringe. Then he released your arm. You pulled it back and rubbed at the small puncture wound on the inside of your arm. 

You were whimpering as he replaced the cap on the syringe and closed the container. Somehow you managed just enough energy to put on a brave face. “I don’t know what you think is going to happen here, but you can’t keep me drugged for the rest of my life!” You tried to sound strong, but your voice cracked and wavered. You had no idea what he’d just injected into you, and it just made you want to cry. 

You grabbed the handle of your door and pulled, pushing the door open. Stumbling out of the car, you found yourself in an alley. You just needed to get away, but you didn’t have the energy to run. So you moved as quickly as possible toward the street at the end of the alley. You barely made it a few steps before an arm wrapped around your waist. 

You screamed. You screamed, and you didn’t stop until your body gave out. You weren’t sure, but you thought that you continued screaming even as you fell into darkness. 

When you finally woke up, you were in a small room, lying on a bed. There weren’t any lights on in the room, but light filtered in from a window that was partially shuttered against the sun. You tried to sit up and discovered that one of your hands was chained to the bed. You yanked on the handcuffs, but they refused to budge, and you only ended up hurting yourself as the metal scratched against your wrist.

It was like the start of a rape scene or maybe the end of a horror film. Well, you weren’t going to stick around to see what happened next if you could help it. Keeping your arm near the bed, you stood and looked at your surroundings. A key would be ideal, but you would break the chain of the cuffs or even the bed itself if you could find something to help you with that. 

Then your eyes landed on a table with a phone sitting on it. You reached out for it with your other hand, but your reach fell a bit short. Pulling your arm as far from the bed as the cuffs allowed, you could just barely tap the edge of the table with your fingers. You couldn’t even get enough of a grip to knock the table over. You pulled against the chain, willing it to just stretch out a little bit more, and then you tried to shift positions, but nothing you did got you any closer to reaching that table or the phone sitting on top of it. 

Carefully, you raised your leg. It could connect with the table, but your leg wasn’t long enough to knock over the phone. You tried to hook your foot under the table so you could drag it over with your leg, but the table was too heavy. It refused to budge. 

You studied the table, memorizing the phone’s position on it. Then you faced the bed. With your back to the table, you moved as far away from the bed as the handcuffs would allow. Slowly, you picked up your leg until your foot was resting on the table. You swung it over and rejoiced when it made contact with the phone. Somehow you managed to drag the phone toward you, and praying that it wouldn’t break, you pulled it right off the table. 

It fell to the floor with a loud thump and then clanged as the phone fell off of the base. Worried that someone might have heard all the noise it made, you rushed to lean over and grab the phone with your hand. 

At the moment, you were cursing yourself for not bothering to memorize Kaiba or Mokuba’s personal numbers. They were just six and nine on your speed dial. So you dialed the emergency number. 1-1-0. 

The moment someone picked up, you quickly told her your name, putting extra emphasis on the Kaiba bit. “I’ve been kidnapped. I don’t know where I am, and I need help.” 

“We’re trying to trace your call right now. Are there any helpful landmarks nearby?” 

“No. I’m in a room and chained to a bed! I can’t see ANYTHING!” She was just doing her job. There was no reason to yell at her, but you couldn’t stop yourself. Now that you were talking to someone else, it felt real. The entire ordeal was beginning to catch up with you. It would be a miracle if you didn’t break out into hysterics at this point.

“Okay. I want you to take a deep breath.” 

You tried to do what she suggested. You honestly tried to listen to her. You took a deep breath in… and then screamed as the door to your room flew open. 

Watanabe strode into the room flanked by two men. One of the men wrestled the phone from your grip as the other one shoved you back onto the bed. The phone was given over to Watanabe, and he pressed the receiver to his ear. “Who is this?” 

He listened for a moment, staring directly at you the entire time. You’d stopped screaming or struggling, and you remained limp as one of his men held you down to the bed. 

“I see… Well, it’s unfortunate that my sister had to involve you in her prank. She should really know better. It’s in your interest to forget that this conversation ever happened.” 

At that moment, you started to screech that he was a liar. He was a kidnapper and a liar, and you needed help. 

Watanabe simply hung up on the woman. Your screaming no longer mattered, but you kept going. Maybe someone, somewhere, would hear you. 

“Shut her up,” Watanabe ordered. 

The two men found something to stick in your mouth. They managed to gag you, but you continued to kick and scream. Eventually, both men were forced to pin you down and keep you immobilized as Watanabe tried to reason with you. 

“You should just give up. We’re in the middle of the ocean. Seto Kaiba isn’t ever going to find you.” He leaned down, and his face was far too close to yours for comfort. “You’re mine. You’ve always been mine.” 

Your body froze. His actions were worrisome. He’d already kidnapped you, and you didn’t know how far he would take all of this. You were as his mercy, and his focus was completely on you. All of your muscles were tense in anticipation of an attack. After you remained still for a few moments, Watanabe removed your gag. 

“Are you feeling cooperative now, my dear?” 

You wanted to spit in his face in response, but that wouldn’t help you out of this situation. You were Mrs. Kaiba, and despite the urge to give into hysterics, you were going to find a way out of this situation. What would Kaiba say in this situation? 

You took a deep breath. “It’s difficult to cooperate when you have me pinned to the bed like a poorly behaved dog.” Your voice cracked and wavered, but you swallowed and tried to keep your chin up. If Kaiba had taught you anything, it was that you had to act like you had the upper hand, even when you didn’t.

Watanabe stroked your face, and you couldn’t stop yourself from trying to pull away from him. You did not want to be touched, especially not by someone as disgusting as him. Then he grabbed your chin. “I’m not stupid. You’ll stay chained up until you’re willing to prove that you’re not gonna run.” 

Asking how to prove that might have been the smart route, but you just couldn’t. You did not want to know. Proving yourself to him would be more than you could handle. You were sure of that. 

His phone started ringing, and Watanabe released you so that he could answer it. “Yes?” After a pause, he grinned, and you swore that you could make out a gold tooth on the edge of his mouth. “I already told you that you’re not my boss anymore. I’m gone. Leaving. I didn’t take any of your money, but I’ve got plenty of men. So you better leave me alone.” There was a slightly longer pause that was interrupted by Watanabe’s laughter. “Oh yeah? Just try it. My men will fuck you sideways.” 

He hung up, and his attention was focused on you again. “Everyone seems to think that telling me I can’t have you will make me give you up.” His hands were on you. This time he grabbed your upper arms and stroked them. “You’re not the prettiest bauble in the world–I assumed you’d look more like your mother than you do–but I’ve been promised you for years, and I’m going to have you.” 

You were too busy hoping that his hands wouldn’t slide under your dress to worry about what he was saying. 

When did you even put a dress on in the first place?! You jerked up, trying to look at your outfit. Before, you were wearing one of Kaiba's shirts, but now you seemed to be wearing some sort of hot pink Barbie nightgown. It was horrifying. Sure, the shirt had been short, but at least you had been wearing your own clothes! 

“What am I– Why– Where did my clothes go?” You told yourself that you wouldn’t have a nervous breakdown. You were going to be strong. If you wanted to get out of this in one piece, you needed to be strong and collected. 

Watanabe leered. “Don’t worry, dear, I kicked all of my men out of the room before I changed you.”

This man had seen you naked. He took advantage of your knocked out state and handled your naked body. That was the breaking point. It was all you could imagine because it was too horrible to ignore. You shut your eyes, willing them to stop tearing up, but it didn’t work. 

The boat rocked, almost turning on its side. Suddenly, the men holding you down were no longer there. You opened your eyes, trying to figure out what was going on. The two men were trying not to fall to the ground, and Watanabe was clutching the bedpost. He was swearing violently as the boat rocked all the way to the other side. 

Now that you were no longer held down, you began to roll, and you fell off the bed before your reflexes could kick in. Your hand was still chained to the bed, and you were viciously reminded of that fact as the handcuffs stopped you from landing on the floor. The handcuffs kept your hand from going too far, and tour shoulder was pulled in two directions by your body weight and the chain on your wrist. 

Then your shoulder made a popping noise, and a sharp bolt of pain shot through it. You cursed as your body shifted so that you could sit upright on the floor. You grabbed your shoulder with your other hand and rubbed it, willing the pain away. You leaned against the bed, trying to curl in on yourself as much as possible, and you couldn’t stop yourself from sobbing. 

You had been violated, and now you were in pain. Would this day continue to keep getting worse and worse?

Watanabe was standing over you, but he was looking up. “What the hell is the captain doing?!”

Then, almost as if it were a response, you heard a loud, mechanical roar. You sniffed, trying to wipe your eyes and listen. 

“What the hell is going on up there?!” Watanabe stormed out of the room as another roar echoed through the walls. His men followed behind him, leaving you alone in the room, but you had a feeling that you wouldn’t be alone for long.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kaiba is level 100 at lockpicking. It is canon. ;)
> 
> I think I edited this earlier in the week? I hope I'm remembering right. 
> 
> Two weeks until we get to brand new never been posted to the internet stuff! I'm kind of excited. :)
> 
> Enjoy~

Something was going on above you. People were shouting, and while you couldn’t make out any of their words, you could clearly hear the gunfire. 

There were guns going off. Guns. Plural. As in, multiple people were shooting and getting shot at. You hoped that meant that Kaiba was here to rescue you, but at the same time, you didn’t want him to be up there. It sounded dangerous and chaotic. If nobody died, you would be surprised. 

You were only basing that assumption off of what you could hear, of course. Wherever you were, it wasn’t close to the action. 

You should be trying to break out of your handcuffs. Since you didn’t know if Watanabe would be back or not, escape should be your number one priority. Especially now that you knew he was willing to undress you while you were knocked out and completely unresponsive. What else would he do next time he knocked you out? Because as long as he had you locked up, you were sure there would be a next time. 

So you carefully pushed yourself off the floor. Your shoulder hurt, and it was difficult to stand up without causing the handcuffs to yank your arm back toward the bed whenever the boat shook and caused you to lose your balance, but you managed to get yourself into a standing position. 

With your free hand, you were forced to clutch the headboard as the boat tilted like a pinball machine. Anything that wasn’t nailed down slid around and crashed to the floor. Then the boat rocked back, and the objects slid in the opposite direction. As items slid past you, you tried to look for something useful. Even just something that might be useful.

The box! Falling to the floor, you snatched at the black box as it tried to slide past you. Your arm was yanked back again, hurting your already sore shoulder and wrist, but you managed to clutch the box tightly as you rolled back to the bed. Leaning over the bed so that you could easily use both hands, you opened the box. 

It contained the needles! You hadn’t been sure, but opening it confirmed that it was the box of syringes that Watanabe had used on you earlier. They wouldn’t help you get out of the handcuffs, but at least you were armed. 

The dress that you were currently wearing didn’t have any pockets, and it clung to your body in a way that left little room to hide objects, but you slid one of the capped needles into your bra. Just in case. 

Another gun went off, and this one was much closer, much louder, than the previous ones. Then you heard footsteps. It sounded like a horde of people were coming toward your room. You scrambled for another syringe and tried to uncap it without accidentally pricking yourself. It was the only weapon you had. Dropping the box onto the bed, you clutched the bedpost, careful to keep the needle hidden and away from your body. Then you closed your eyes, bracing yourself for the worst. 

The door swung open, and you didn’t know who you were hoping it would be. If it were Kaiba, then he could rescue you. You would be safe. 

But if it were Kaiba, that would mean that he was here in the middle of all the fighting. That meant he could get hurt.

Selfishly, you wanted it to be Kaiba. A prince charming to your locked-up damsel. 

The door slammed shut and someone grunted. It wasn’t a very Kaiba-like noise, and your eyes flew open. 

Watanabe was in the room with you and locking the door. Your hand tightened around the syringe, and your thumb slid down toward the plunger. At least now you had a weapon.

“What’s going on?!” You didn’t have to fake that frantic edge to your voice. Even with a weapon, you were scared. Kaiba could be out there with all those guns, and you were locked in here with an ancient pervert. 

Watanabe growled and advanced on you, waving a gun around in a way that made you cringe. “That crazy husband of yours just won’t let go! He landed a jet on my boat! He could have sunk it!” He stopped on the other side of the bed, and you braced yourself. “I offered him money to get lost, told him we’d let him leave, but he shot at me!” Then Watanabe stalked around the bed to grab at your hair. “What’s so special about you anyhow? He can’t just go find another woman. Oh, no.” Spit was flying from his mouth at this point, and you wanted to wipe off your cheek, but you didn’t want to reveal the needle in your hand. “He wants to come here and steal my woman. Well, we’ll see about that.” 

Watanabe tugged your hair as he spoke, forcing you to twist your neck and back into an uncomfortable position. It was difficult to really look at him and impossible to really aim your needle at a specific location on his body. 

So you swung out, needle first, until your hand swung into flesh. The needle sunk through his shirt and into the side of his stomach. You tried to shove down the plunger to inject him with whatever he’d used on you, but he cursed and shoved you over. You fell forward onto the bed and twisted, kicking back at Watanabe, trying to keep him as far away as possible. 

With your eyes firmly locked onto Watanabe, you backed up until your back was against the metal headboard of the bed. The bars pressed against your back, and you watched as Watanabe yanked out the needle, swearing the entire time. The syringe still contained a lot of liquid. If you had managed to inject any into Watanabe, it wasn’t much. 

Holding up the needle, he loomed over you. “Do you wanna be drugged? Is that what you want, you stupid bitch?” He grabbed your arm. “’Cause I can do that, and then maybe I’ll–”

You lashed out with your leg, kicking him in the face. He stumbled back, dropping the syringe but maintaining his grip on you. You were pulled toward him, and you tried to pull your arm away. He tripped, lost his balance, and fell over. 

His grip slackened just enough for you to get away. You scooted back against the headboard, curling up into a ball. He had to be angry. You shouldn’t have done that. Not while you were still trapped. 

Someone tried to open the door. Then they banged on it. 

“Get lost!” Watanabe growled as he rubbed his face and sat up. “I’m disciplinin’ my woman!” 

The slamming continued, louder and louder. The door began to vibrate and buckle. For a moment, you were forgotten as Watanabe yelled at whoever was on the other side. Furious and seeing red–maybe because he had just received a kick to the face–he made his way over to the door. 

“What the hell do you want? You better have the situation upstairs handled!” He unlocked the door, and it flung open, whacking him and causing him to stumble. Two muscular men squeezed through the doorway and attacked him. In the blink of an eye, Watanabe was disarmed and pinned to a wall. You weren’t even sure how the two men had pulled that off. 

Then Kaiba strode through the doorway, and you gasped. He looked furious. He looked like he wanted to grab Watanabe’s head and rip it off his body. At your intake of breath, his attention turned to you. The moment his eyes landed on you, the murderous scowl dropped off his face. He stood still for a moment and seemed to be studying you. His eyes scanned every single inch of your body and settled on the handcuffs. 

“Where are the keys?!” he roared as he turned on Watanabe. 

The man holding Watanabe yanked him off the wall, and keeping his arms pinned behind him, turned him to face Kaiba. Watanabe glared at Kaiba and didn’t say a single word. The man shook him and bent his arms back farther. Watanabe cringed, but then he tried to spit at Kaiba. He missed. Kaiba gripped his shoulder and punched him in the stomach once. Watanabe might have doubled over, but the other man was still holding him in place. 

“Search him,” Kaiba ordered. Then he addressed the other man. “Keep an eye on the hall.” He turned back to you and approached the bed you were bound to. You were still curled up in a ball, leaning against the headboard, and you didn’t move as he closed the distance. Once he was standing next to the bed, he remained completely still. His voice was quiet as he asked, “Are you alright?” 

You nodded. “I’m glad you’re here,” you whispered. 

“There’s nothing on him, Mr. Kaiba.” 

Kaiba turned his head slightly, indicating that he was listening to the man. “You’re sure.” 

“Yes, sir.”

He growled. “Fine. Remove him. Find somewhere to keep him or knock him out. Just keep him, and anyone else, out of my way.” 

The two men left the room, and Kaiba shut the door behind them. He began to search the room without another word. 

“Thank you.” You were glad he was here. He didn’t have to save you. He didn’t have to come flying after you and fight for you. He’d risked his life, and while he didn’t look any worse for wear, his movements were slow and careful. He seemed tired. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

He paused but didn’t look at you. “I’m fine.” 

He didn’t sound convincing, but you let the subject drop. Kaiba returned to ransacking the room. He pulled open the closet, tore all of the clothes off their hangers, pulled out all the drawers that were in there, and then began dumping out their contents. After he’d created a small pile on the floor, he turned to the desk. Anything that had been sitting on the desk had fallen while the ship rocked, so he simply began to pull out all of the drawers. 

He grabbed a paper clip, and you simply stared at him as he began to twist it into a straight line. He looked back at you, grabbed a few more, and then approached the bed. 

You unfolded your legs and leaned toward him, curious about what he was doing. He sat down next to you on the bed. The bed shifted under his weight, making you slide toward him, and he leaned over you to study the handcuffs. Reflexively, you leaned back and pressed yourself into the mattress. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to pick the lock.” 

“You can do that?” 

“Yes. Now stay still.” 

He pulled your arm out so that he could get a good view of the handcuffs. As he studied them, he moved until he was straddling your body and hovering over you. You tried to shift out of his way but ended up staring at his chest as he worked. 

It sank in that he was really here, rescuing you. Without Kaiba, who knew what Watanabe would have done to you? 

No. You had your suspicions about what would have happened to you. 

As Kaiba tried to pick the lock, you shut your eyes and breathed in through your nose. You could smell him. Kaiba’s scent–a blend of coffee and whatever cologne Mokuba bought him for his birthday every year–was a comfort. It was the scent of your bed, the smell of home. 

When Kaiba unlocked the handcuffs, he didn’t have to say anything. You felt the handcuff fall away from your wrist, and you pulled your hand toward your chest, grabbing your wrist and rubbing it. Kaiba pulled away from you, but he didn’t get too far before you wrapped your arms around him. 

Your arms initially wrapped around his neck, but you wiggled around until you were giving him an actual hug. By sliding your arms underneath his and around his stomach, you forced him to choose between hugging you back and awkwardly holding his arms out. 

His arms wrapped around you, but he had trouble deciding where to place his hands. He was always like this. He could slide his hands up your shirt and had no qualms about groping you, but the moment you forced him into a hug, he never knew what to do. You grinned against the fabric of his trench, just enjoying his presence. 

He tolerated your hug for a moment before standing, pulling you up and off the bed in the process. He removed himself from your arms but grabbed your hand. At first, you thought he was being affectionate. Then you realized that he was only holding your hand so he could lead you over to the door. 

The message was clear even if he didn’t say anything. It was time to leave. 

He was taking you home.

When he opened the door, the sounds from above became louder, and you realized that the fighting wasn’t over. You stopped, forcing him to literally drag you. “Seto,” you said in an attempt to get his attention, “is it safe up there?” 

“No.” His answer was direct and to the point. “But we need to leave. Now.” 

There wasn’t any urgency in his voice despite his words so you didn’t understand the need to pass through gunfire to leave. “Why?” 

He turned and pinned you in place with his eyes. “I had to hurry to get here. I could only bring a limited number of men. We need to leave before the fighting goes on for too long. Now will you move?” He growled out his question, and you cringed. It made you feel bad for stalling and asking so many questions. You were wasting time. 

You hurried along behind him, doing your best to keep up with his lengthy legs. He was moving as quickly as he could without running, and you had to jog to keep up. You trusted that he knew where he was going, and he must have because the gunfire just kept getting louder. 

Then he entered a stairway. It was fairly narrow, and you had to stay behind him. The noise of fighting echoed, bouncing off the metal around you, and you almost lost your nerve. The moment Kaiba opened the door at the top of the stairs, you knew that you would be faced with a battlefield. 

An arm wrapped around your waist. It yanked you back and pulled you away from Kaiba. You stumbled as you tripped down the stairs. You felt your back make contact with something. Your eyes connected with Kaiba’s as he spun around. He looked behind you, his eyes narrowed, and he started to storm forward.

Something hard and cold pressed against the side of your neck with enough force to be uncomfortable. Kaiba froze, and you could hear someone laughing into your ear.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last pre-2016 chapter. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up the weekly updates from here. Also I'm not sold on the next chapter yet. We'll see.
> 
> Enjoy~

“Don’t move.” You froze, obeying the harsh voice next to your ear. The person holding you sounded like a man, and you didn’t have to look down to know that the cold object wedged into your neck was a gun. “Don’t make any sudden movements, Kaiba.”

Kaiba looked past you, but you kept your eyes on his face. His thoughts were masked by a stone exterior, and you found comfort in that. He was still composed. He was calm. “Put the gun down,” he ordered.

The man behind you scoffed. “Yeah, right. Why don’t you just turn and walk away?”

“If I don’t?”

The man stepped back, dragging you with him, and you lost your balance a little, tripping over your own feet. He kept his hold on you, and the gun continued to dig into your neck. “The boss wants ‘er alive, but I bet he’d rather she be dead than with you.”

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “You’re willing to bet your life on that?” He took a step forward, and your eyes widened. You didn’t know what he was doing, and you honestly wanted to trust him, but you didn’t want to die. “If you shoot her, you know your boss will shoot you… if he’s feeling generous enough to kill you quickly.”

“Not another step!” The gun left your neck, and you could see it out of the corner of your vision. It pointed directly at Kaiba now. “I’ll shoot!”

Kaiba stopped, but he didn’t seem intimidated. He smirked.

Then the hand holding the gun disappeared from sight. The arm wrapped around you yanked you backward. You stumbled. It released you. You tried to maintain your balance. **BANG**. The gun startled you, and you fell forward onto your hands and knees.

You had to look up. You couldn’t look up. That bullet may have hit someone. It may have hit Kaiba. So you took a deep breath and waited. Then hands gripped your shoulders and dragged you up. Your wide eyes looked straight into Kaiba’s, and you took another deep breath. He pulled you into his chest, and you wrapped your arms around him.

“Good work,” he said, and you looked up at him, wondering what he was talking about. He wasn’t looking at you. You followed his eyesight and realized he was speaking to a man in a suit. The man nodded, keeping another man pinned down as he did so.

Kaiba pulled you away. “Time to leave.” He tugged you back up the stairs and to the doorway.

When he opened the door, the sound of gunfire magnified, and you cringed away. His grip on your arm stayed firm, refusing to let you back away.

He looked out then turned back to you. “Stay low and close to me. We’re going to start running on the count of three.” He crouched down in the doorway, pulling you over with him. “One.” He settled into a starting position. “Two.” His muscles tensed. Yours tensed, too. Then he stared out for a moment, waiting for something. “Three.” He took off, dragging you behind him.

He stayed low, and you just watched his back as you tried to keep up. People shouted and yelled and screamed, but you focused on Kaiba. You had to focus on him. Otherwise, you might not make it.

Later, when you found yourself in the back of a helicopter, huddled up against Kaiba’s side, you honestly couldn’t recall how you made it into the helicopter. His arm wrapped around your shoulders, but it didn’t stop you from shivering. You pressed your nose into his shirt and closed your eyes. The entire ordeal weighed down on you. Your eyes shut, and you let yourself sleep.

You were finally safe. Kaiba had saved you.

When you woke up, your head and throat both hurt. You pushed yourself up, looking around at your surroundings. It was a hospital room. There was a curtain hanging near your bed, and you were hooked up to at least one machine.

Kaiba was there, too. He was sitting at a table with his laptop in front of him, but his eyes were focused on you. You smiled at him. You started to ask him why you were in the hospital, but speaking caused you to cough. You fell back into the bed as coughs shook your body. You tried to cover your mouth, and the movement caused your arm to tug on the tube connected to it. It hurt.

Hands helped you sit up and supported your back as your coughs died down. A glass of water was shoved into your face, and you grabbed it. You were so thirsty that you tried to drink the water before your coughs completely settled, and you ended up making it worse.

Eventually, your coughing settled down. The nurse next to you asked if you were feeling okay. You nodded, not trusting your throat yet. Kaiba was on your other side, and his hands were the ones keeping you upright. You reached out and grabbed his hand.

“What am I doing here?” Your throat constricted around the words, and your mouth felt dry.

The nurse smiled down at you. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’re very dehydrated, and there are still trace amounts of a tranquilizer in your system, but with plenty of fluids, you’ll be fine in a day or so. However, your husband...” She turned her eyes to Kaiba and stared at him. “Why aren’t you in your room, Mr. Kaiba?”

He met her eyes with a hard glare. You expected her to be cowed by it, but the nurse refused to let Kaiba intimidate her.

Finally he said, “I already told the doctor that I am fine.” His jaw clenched as the nurse continued to stare him down.

“Your wound won’t get better if you don’t give it time to heal.”

He growled at her, and you knew that she was frustrating him. He wasn’t used to people arguing with him over anything. This conversation wasn't one you would join. You twisted, turning toward Kaiba and reaching for the cup of water. He noticed what you were doing and stopped glaring so that he could hand the water over to you.

“Shouldn’t you worry about _her_?” he snapped at the nurse as you sipped at the water.

“She’s doing exactly what she needs to do to get better.” The nurse looked like she might start shaking her finger at Kaiba. “You need to rest, too!”

Kaiba opened his mouth. Then he shut it and smirked. “Fine.” He gently nudged your body to the side before sitting down on your bed.

“What are you doing?” the woman sputtered.

Kaiba ignored her as he reclined next to you. He adjusted so that the tubes connected to your arms wouldn’t be yanked out, and then he pulled you toward him until you were using his chest as a pillow.

“Now I’m resting. Go away,” he snapped.

The woman huffed. The glare that she directed at you accused you of assisting Kaiba. You wanted to protest and say that you were trying not to get involved, but that wouldn’t be true. You were enjoying this far too much.

“Mr. Kaiba, if you want to slow down your healing process, I can’t stop you. As much as I’d like, I’m not able to tie you down to your bed,” she scolded Kaiba as if he were a small child. “However, your wife has been through quite the ordeal. She needs rest just as much as you do. Won’t you _please_ go to your own room and allow her to get better?”

You knew it was inappropriate. You started laughing anyway. She was talking to Kaiba as if he were a wayward ten-year-old. Then she glared at you, and you had to bury your face in Kaiba’s chest. The movement caused you to pull on the tube connected to your arm, and you winced, your laughter turning into a pained whine.

“See?!” The woman took your arm and pulled it toward her so she could inspect the tubing. Then she took a deep breath. “How are you feeling, dear?”

Your head felt a little heavy, and your throat was still sore, but you told her that you were feeling okay. She removed the bandage on your arm, revealing the needle that was wedged into your skin.

“Why is that attached to me?” you asked, curiosity taking over.

“It’s a saline solution. We’re rehydrating your body.”

She removed the needle from your arm, stating that you could rehydrate by drinking plenty of water now that you were awake. You nodded, not really thinking about it. Then she left the room, but not before saying, “Mr. Kaiba, you might consider at least putting on looser clothing. That bullet wound could reopen if you don’t.”

The moment her words sank in, you focused on Kaiba. “BULLET WOUND?!” You tried to form a complete sentence, but those words just repeated over and over.

Kaiba glared at the wall and muttered something unflattering about the nurse.

“How? Where?” You studied him, looking for bandages, blood, _something_.

“It just grazed my leg. It’s nothing.”

You couldn’t believe that. He might be Seto Kaiba, but he wasn’t bulletproof. “Show me,” you demanded.

His attitude changed. He made eye contact with you and smirked. “Eager to get my pants off?”

Your face flushed against your will as you protested. You stumbled over your words. Then he shifted so that he was hovering over you on the bed. You sank down into your pillows. He pressed his forehead against yours.

Then he pulled away and slid off your bed. “Drink your water,” he ordered as he walked back over to his chair.

Now that you were paying attention to him, you realized that he had a slight limp. He seemed to be favoring one leg over the other. He was hurt, and it was your fault. You bit your lip as you watched him sit down in front of his laptop.

“I’m sorry.”

He raised an eyebrow at your words.

“You’re hurt. I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.” You clenched your teeth and fought off tears. Maybe he should have let Watanabe drag you off to Russia.

“Don’t—” Kaiba sighed and rubbed the side of his face. “I’m _fine_ , and I’m not going to take my pants off in a hospital room to prove it.”

His irritation bothered you more than it should have, and you began to cry. You tried to stop, sniffling and rubbing the tears away, but it didn’t work. Kaiba frowned once he realized you were crying. You cried harder and began to apologize. You pulled your knees up and buried your face into your knees. This was just awful. You shouldn’t be crying. You weren’t the one who got shot. You were the one who was rescued. You should be happy and grateful.

A hand landed on your head and seemed to pat you. You choked back a sob and looked up. Kaiba’s hand was sitting on your head, and he stared down at you with a frown. He didn’t say anything, but his fingers slid into your hair and rubbed your scalp. It was awkward, but you could tell that it was supposed to be a comforting gesture.

You smiled at him and sniffled. You wanted to laugh and sob at the same time, and your body made a strange sound that caused you to bury your face back into your knees. This time it was due to the awkward sound that you created.

Kaiba had to be regretting ever getting involved with you. You were a not-so-hot mess that caused him to get shot. Why he kept you around was beyond comprehension.

His fingers continued to rub circles into the back of your head, and you were able to calm down. He was alive, and if the way he treated your nurse was any indication, he was still feeling like himself.

You looked back up at him, hoping that you didn’t have snot anywhere on your face. “Thanks.” You turned and let your legs dangle off the side of your bed. “You rescued me. You didn’t have to. I just… Thank you.” You couldn’t begin to describe how overwhelming your feelings of happiness were.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I had to come after you.”

You pulled him in so that he was standing between your legs and wrapped your arms around his waist. Maybe he had to come after you because of some sort of personal obligation, but you weren’t going to think about his motivation. He came after you, and as you held him close, that fact was the only thing that mattered.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> October was hell at work. So busy. I would get home and be barely functional. 
> 
> And then, my computer completely gave up on life. It'll work for short periods of time before freezing and then giving me this sadface error message. I've been using my boyfriend's, but I need my own really. ):
> 
> Fingers crossed I'll decide on something this next weekend. And then the holidays are coming! I plan to make use of all that time off from work to do some writing. :)
> 
> Anyway, this chapter is brand new while everything before was from 2008-2013. I'm hoping it isn't a serious difference, but I dunno. It's kind of set up for the end of the story and more transitional than anything so it may not even be noticeable.
> 
> Enjoy?

You woke up tied up to a bed. You tried to sit up, but you couldn’t move your arms or legs. Everything seemed to be tied down. Panic caused you to cry out, but you weren’t sure who would come for you.

You struggled, pulling at your legs and your hands, hoping something would come loose. You screamed and yelled, hoping someone would come. You hoped that it would be Kaiba, but you needed someone to save you.

Then Watanabe was there, grinning at you. “I have you,” he said. “You’re mine.”

“No!” You struggled harder, trying to twist and turn and pull against the restraints. “No!” you screamed over and over as you tried to kick your legs. You found yourself restrained even more. Somehow whatever was holding you down wrapped tighter around you.

You looked down, trying to see what was keeping your legs down. Suddenly, there were snakes slithering around you. They squeezed, keeping you from moving. You tried to twist your body away but nothing worked.

Watanabe came closer and closer as you struggled. By the time he was close, you were wrapped up and breathing was difficult. You were out of breath from struggling to get free.

“No!” you gasped as he reached out a hand.

Your eyes opened. You sat up, filling your lungs with air. You looked around at the room, searching for Watanabe, as you clawed at your sheet, kicking it off the bed.

There was a nurse standing by your bed, and Kaiba lurked just behind her, scowling.

Your heart pounded against your chest as if it were trying to break free. You remembered that Kaiba had saved you. You took a moment to look at the bed that you were in. It was a hospital bed. Watanabe wasn’t here.

The nurse asked if you were feeling okay, and you nodded.

You took a deep breath. Even though the dream had been nothing more than a nightmare, you still couldn’t shake your fear. It felt like right now, this moment in the hospital, could be the dream, and any moment you would wake up to see Watanabe hovering over you.

The nurse assessed you with a frown and then took a moment to look at the machines next to you. “You had a nightmare,” she informed you, as if you couldn’t figure that out on your own. “That’s to be expected after… well, considering the situation.” She seemed to say this to Kaiba rather than you. “Try to get some more sleep, dear.”

She left your room, and Kaiba watched her go. He took a moment to close the door to your room before sitting in the chair next to your bed.

“What time is it?” Your voice came out raspy and unfamiliar.

He checked his phone. “Two fifty-three.”

“P.M?” You couldn’t believe that you had slept for so long.

“No, A.M.”

You felt your eyes widen as you bit your lip. “How long since...?”

“You’ve been in the hospital since yesterday.”

You took a deep breath, not wanting to think about the time spent with that disgusting man but needing to know. “How long did he have me?”

He wouldn’t make eye contact. “We should talk in the morning. It’s late.”

“I’m not tired.” You weren’t lying. After that nightmare, you felt like it would take some time for you to relax, never mind getting back to sleep. You reached out for his hand, wanting some sort of comfort, wanting to be able to feel his presence and know this wasn’t a dream.

“Almost two days,” Kaiba finally answered.

You shut your eyes and leaned back. “Did anything…?” Would you know? Would you be able to tell?

“Go back to sleep,” Kaiba ordered. He reached out, but he put his hand down on the bed next to yours rather than touching you.

You frowned. Did that mean the answer was yes and he didn't want to tell you? “I think…” You wanted to tell Kaiba that you were scared. You were so scared that Watanabe still had you. You were scared of what had happened while you were drugged. “I need to know.”

“You’re dehydrated. You still had some of the tranquilizer in your system when I brought you in. There may be mental side-effects, but they can’t tell at this time,” Kaiba said, without feeling, as if he were reading a newspaper about someone else. “Otherwise, you’re okay.”

You nodded. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t sign up for this.”

“Stop,” Kaiba interrupted before you could continue. “Don’t apologize. You didn’t ask for this to happen. Keep your apologies for things you should be sorry for.”

You nodded, unsure about what to say next. Falling back into the pillow, you realized that your back felt sore. Your entire body seemed stiff as you pointed your toes and reached out your hands. The bed was uncomfortable. You needed to stretch out your body.

You sat up and turned, dangling your legs off the side of the bed. There were things connected to you, but none of them seemed to be inserted via a needle, so you just pulled them all off.

“What are you doing?” Kaiba asked.

You glanced back at him and noted that he didn’t look like he would try to stop you. So you ignored him as you stood up. You reached up for the ceiling, stretching out your back. You reached as far as you could and kept going.

It felt so good. You almost moaned at the feeling of your back straightening out. Thinking back over the events of the past few days, you realized that you had spent most of the time sitting or lying down.

Then your stomach grumbled. When was the last time you had any food?

“Is there anything to eat around here?” you asked Kaiba.

“They have a cafeteria, but the food is inedible.”

You considered the cafeteria food for a moment. Your stomach constricted, letting you know that it was empty and needed food. “Okay.” You would try it. You looked down at the hospital gown that you were wearing and decided that you needed actual clothes first. “Where are my…” You stopped talking when you remembered that the last thing you had been wearing was a gross nightgown that had been forced on you. Ugh. “Do I have clothes?”

Kaiba frowned. “Mokuba can bring some for you.”

“In the morning?” You huffed. “I’m hungry now.” Well, you would just have to go get food in the ugly gown. At least your butt wasn’t hanging out in the back. You eyed Kaiba’s trench, wondering if you could take it and throw it over your gown.

“I can have my driver bring you food.” Kaiba followed your gaze to his trench and raised an eyebrow. “What do you want to eat?”

You thought about it for a moment. If you could have anything… You gave Kaiba your order. He pulled his phone out and called his driver. As he told his driver what to get you, you started walking around your hospital room. The pacing helped your legs loosen up.

The room had its own bathroom, but it didn’t have a shower of any kind. You hoped they would let you go home soon. You wanted a long, hot bath.

Kaiba hung up his phone. You grinned at him. “I remember watching a nurse scold you. Did that actually happen?”

He frowned and glared at you.

You remembered the way the nurse had treated him. It seemed almost like a hallucination. Most people were too scared of Kaiba to treat him like a normal person. “Why are you here if you have your own room?”

“I was working in here,” he gestured to the table next to his chair. His laptop was sitting on it and there was a pile of papers and a cup of coffee next to it. The laptop was shut, and the coffee looked like it had a film over it.

“Please tell me you weren’t sleeping in that chair.”

“I already told you I was working,” he claimed.

“Sure.” You nodded, wondering if you could convince him to lie down in your bed. You didn’t want to get back into it, but he could probably use it. Then you went back to inspecting the room in silence.

It wasn’t interesting, but you had a lot to think about. Watanabe had drugged you and took you away. He’d tried to take you out of the country so he could keep you locked up forever.

You were lucky. Kaiba had come for you.

He claimed that he had to because you were his wife. You didn’t know why that made you feel annoyed. It wasn’t because you wanted to be left with Watanabe. You just didn’t like Kaiba’s reasoning.

Still, he did take a bullet for you. That had to say something.

You glanced at him. He had his laptop out and was typing on it. He wasn’t a stranger to guns. That memory came back to you in a flash. Kaiba shoving the barrel of a gun in someone’s mouth.

That seemed like a distant memory, but it had only been a few days ago.

His phone began buzzing. He looked at the screen and then answered it. “Kaiba.” There was a pause as he listened to whoever was on the other line. “I’ll be down now.” He ended the call and put his phone in his pocket. He left the room without another word, but why would he explain himself to you?

You knew that he would save you. The whole time you were with Watanabe, you had known Kaiba would rescue you. You felt safe with Kaiba, but how well did you really know him?

Then Kaiba’s driver ducked into the room, carrying a bag of food and grinning at you. “Glad you’re looking better,” he said. He looked at the table next to Kaiba’s chair. “Where should I put this down?” He held the bag up.

You wondered how angry Kaiba would be about his laptop getting moved. That really was the only table in the room. The tray attached to your bed was barely big enough for the bag. You could put the bag there, but then you wouldn’t have space to pull out the food and put that down easily. You gestured to the tray. “It can go down there.” You would take over Kaiba’s table when he got back. “Did you see where Seto went?”

“Mr. Kaiba is… _speaking_ with the nurses. They didn’t want to let me come up since it’s after visiting hours.” He put the bag down. “Please let me know if you need anything else.”

You said goodbye as Kaiba’s driver left the room. Kaiba had to be threatening the staff. In that case, he could go on a rampage for hours on end. When something set him off, Kaiba could rant with the best of them.

Pulling the bag open, you realized there was enough food for both you and Kaiba. You pulled out some for yourself and took up residence in his chair. If he came back while you were still eating, you’d make him take the bed. Maybe if he relaxed he would fall asleep.

You smothered a yawn, digging into your food with plastic utensils. As you took your first bite, you decided this was the best food that you had ever had.

That ended up being your last day in the hospital.

You were discharged the next day, and part of you had a feeling that the nurses were happy to get rid of Kaiba.

Kaiba told you he had to wrap up some business in Tokyo, and then dropped you off at Mokuba’s apartment. You wanted to be alone for a while and tried to get Kaiba to drop you off at the hotel room, but he didn’t listen and took you to Mokuba’s instead.

Mokuba was excited to see you. He invited you into his apartment and gestured around at his clean living room. “I cleaned!”

He seemed to be proud of himself, but you knew that he couldn’t have cleaned his pigsty out all by himself. It had been far too filthy. Still, you had to give him credit for trying. “So how long do you think it’ll stay this clean?”

“Hey!” Mokuba pouted. “You just happened to be here after a party last time! That’s not normal.”

“Sure.” You smiled. “So what’re we doing today?”

Mokuba insisted on taking you shopping. It was your last day in Tokyo, and he wanted to send you off with a bang. You tried to object since you weren’t feeling up to that much activity, but Mokuba dismissed your objections. Since you liked him and it was your last day, you let him drag you along, but you found that you couldn’t focus on any of it.

You felt bad, but you really just wanted to curl up by yourself.

Then Mokuba wanted to take you and Kaiba out for dinner. It was a farewell dinner with just him, and he picked out what he wanted you to wear. You didn’t want to eat in a crowded restaurant, but you owed Mokuba for making this trip more fun for you. He didn’t have to go out of his way to be nice to you, and he did. The least you could do was go out with him on your last night in Tokyo.

So you smothered your objections and went out with the Kaiba brothers.

People were staring at you the entire time. While you had been out with Mokuba during the day, you thought that maybe people were paying a little too much attention to you, but at dinner, it was more pronounced. You noticed people turning in their seats to glance over at your table.

It could have been either of your dinner companions, but for some reason, you didn't think so.

The two brothers were speaking to each other, having given up on convincing you to join in, and you wondered if they would know where the sudden attention came from. Even if they did, would they tell you?

You wished that your phone hadn't gone missing. You could have used it right now.

“So why are we getting so much attention?” you asked during a break in their conversation.

Mokuba glanced around the room, and Kaiba focused on the food in front of him.

“Should we--?”

“No,” Kaiba snapped, interrupting his brother.

You looked between the two as they seemed to have a conversation without words.

“You know how famous we are.” Mokuba shrugged. “This is nothing new.”

You let his lie slide, because you knew he was lying to you. You knew how famous they were. You had been out in public with both of them before. This was an unusual amount of attention.

You would figure it out later. Your computer was still in the hotel room, and Kaiba had already promised you a new phone once the two of you were back in Domino.

You dropped back out of the conversation. Trying to keep up was hard, and you were tired. You just wanted to sleep.

When you made it back to the hotel room with Kaiba, you weren’t able to change into comfortable clothes and curl up in bed. Kaiba wanted to fly back to Domino right away, which meant that you would have to sleep on the jet, but first, you had to double check that all of your stuff was packed and ready to go. Someone had done the work for you, but it was still up to you to ensure that none of your stuff got left behind.

Which it wouldn’t. This was all Kaiba’s stuff. He paid for it. With the exception of your phone, what little you brought into this relationship had been left behind in Domino.

On the jet, Kaiba got his briefcase out and proceeded to read over some of his papers. You pushed a seat down until it turned into a bed and curled up with a blanket. You wished that you had a husband you could cuddle with.

You had to keep running. If you stopped, whatever was chasing you would catch up. It was bad. You knew that you didn’t want to get caught, but you couldn’t keep running forever.

You turned a corner, hoping you could lose it. You needed to just keep going.

Then Watanabe appeared in front of you. You tried to stop, but you tripped and fell face-first into his hairy chest. The hair on his chest seemed to grab at you, trying to pull you into his chest. You tried pushing away from him, but he held tighter. Placing your hands against his chest, you pushed until you could get your face away from him.

He allowed you to turn away but didn’t release you.

Then you saw him. Kaiba. He stood across the street, watching you struggle against Watanabe.

He held up a gun. You took in a deep breath as you stared down the barrel.

Kaiba’s face looming over you was the first thing that you saw. You gasped and tried to get away from him.

He took a step back. “We've landed.” He turned away from you and grabbed his briefcase. He left without another word.

You watched him go, feeling guilty about how uneasy you felt.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to sit on this chapter for a few extra days to edit it. I really wanted the reader's emotional state to be realistic and well conveyed. (It's really important for it to be done right.) I hope I succeeded! 
> 
> Please let me know how you guys feel about her actions and emotions in this update!

When you woke up, you didn’t know where you were, and you rolled out of bed, crouching down on the floor, before realizing that you were in the Kaiba mansion. You tried to recall when you’d made it home, but you couldn’t.

The last thing you remembered was the plane ride home, but you didn’t remember anything after getting on the plane.

You reached for the phone sitting on the side table, intending to check the time since you seemed to be alone, and found a note underneath it. The note filled you with dread. Your instincts told you to ignore it, but you couldn’t figure out why. Telling yourself not to be silly, you opened it and saw Kaiba’s distinct scrawl.

_Feel free to make any calls that you need to make. Don’t answer any incoming calls. This is a temporary phone. I’ll bring a new phone home for you tonight._

_I told your supervisor not to expect you to return to work until next week._

Something told you to get out of the room right now. You couldn’t stay here. You grabbed your clothes and hurried into the bathroom. Your feelings of fear clung to you even in there so you rushed through brushing your teeth and showering, doing the bare minimum to make yourself presentable. Some instinct in you said that you needed to get out of here.

You would go to work. Kaiba’s assumption that you needed a day of rest couldn’t be further from the truth.

Once you were ready to leave, you grabbed the phone he’d left behind for you and went downstairs to steal a set of keys. Leaving the bedroom somehow helped you breathe easier, but you still felt the need to get out. Kaiba kept all of his car keys in the same location, and you grabbed a set at random.

In the garage, you pressed the unlock button on the key to figure out which car it belonged to. The car beeped. It was a two-door, expensive looking thing, and you were tempted to swap out the keys for another set.

Then again, what were the chances that something bad would happen to the car?

You got into the car and began adjusting the seat and mirrors. Maybe you should consider asking Kaiba for one of his cars. You didn’t want to seem greedy, but it would be better than just grabbing a car at random and hoping he wouldn’t get pissed about you driving it. Men could be funny about cars like that.

You started the car, and the garage door opened automatically. You pulled the car forward without touching the accelerator and let it roll down the driveway to the gate. The men at the gate could tell that it was you from your lack of speeding, and at first, they didn’t open the gate.

Rolling down the window, you asked them what was going on.

“Mr. Kaiba told us you would be staying here today.”

“No. I’m going to Kaiba Corp. I hope that isn’t a problem?” If Kaiba had given them instructions to keep you prisoner, he would be getting a very angry phone call from you.

The guard shrugged. “I don’t think so. Have a nice day, Mrs. Kaiba.”

The name caught you off guard. You wondered if you would ever get used to it. “Thanks.” He stepped away, and you rolled up your window. They opened the gate, and you tapped the accelerator to pull forward. The car lurched toward the street, and you slammed on the brakes before it threw itself into traffic. It screeched to a stop, and your head almost slammed into the wheel.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, you could tell some of the guards were laughing.

You ignored them and turned onto the street, the car taking off as you tapped the accelerator, and then giving you whiplash as you tapped the brakes.

You found yourself speeding inadvertently the entire way to Kaiba Corp, and every time you noticed your speed and hit the brakes, you felt bad for anyone behind you. The brakes on this car responded to less pressure than anything you’d driven in the past, and the car itself kept trying to hit ninety. Next time, you would make sure you drove one of the four door cars.

Once you made it to work, you took Kaiba’s spot in the parking garage. It was empty, as usual, and you wanted to stop the car and get out as quickly as possible. You wondered if you should talk to Kaiba about driving the car home himself.

In the building, people were coming back from lunch, so you went straight up to your floor and walked in as if you’d been working the whole day and were just coming back from lunch, too.

Some of your coworkers waved and said hello, but none of them approached to speak with you. A few avoided eye contact.

You dove into your cubicle. Maybe you wouldn’t emerge again until it was time to go home. It seemed awkward out there, and you had a feeling that all of them had either read the news or had been told about it at the water filters.

You booted up your computer and logged in. You’d done some work while you were away in Tokyo, but at the same time, it had been a few days since you even checked your emails, so you had quite a bit to catch up on before you could start doing actual work.

“Hey.” One of your coworkers seemed to materialize out of nowhere. “I saw the news. Are you ok?”

You nodded, caught off guard by her concern.

She threw you even further off kilter by reaching out and pulling you into a hug, even though you were still seated. “Let me know if you need to talk. I know you might not want to go into detail… but I’m here if you need anything!”

You mumbled out a thanks, trying not to cry at the way she seemed to care. She excused herself, and you tried to refocus on your work.

You read some emails and tried to piece together what needed a response and what was old enough to just ignore.

Your boss materialized at your desk, staring at you as if your eye were hanging out of its socket. He didn’t say a word. You waited, but he continued to stare, horrified by the sight of you.

“Hi. Was there anything you wanted me to do while I’m here today?”

He squeaked then tried to regain his composure. “Mr. Kaiba told me not to expect you.”

You shrugged. “I’m ready to get back to work.”

“Whatever you feel like doing.” He waved his hand. “I have no work for you today.”

You frowned, but your boss was already down the aisle, no longer paying any attention to you. You watched him go. Then you turned back to your computer, intending on focusing on your emails. You could at least get those sorted out before tomorrow.

You stared at the computer screen. The letters blurred. You read the email. Some announcement about something. Was it a quarter end email?

You stared at it.

And stared.

And thought about being tied up in a flimsy, pink dress.

You shut your eyes, swallowed, and tried to think about work. Kaiba Corp’s newest game. You opened your eyes and looked at the email. It was just a general company email. Did you really need to read it? You deleted it.

“What are you doing here?”

Kaiba. You spun around, almost falling out of your chair. You opened your mouth. Shut it. Then opened it again. “Hi.”

“Don’t make me repeat myself.” He glanced to the right. “Get back to work!” he barked, and you felt yourself lift off your seat for a moment even though he wasn’t shouting at you.

He would see right through you if you lied, and to be honest, seeing him cleared a bit of the fog from your brain. “I needed to get out. I couldn’t stay indoors all day. I figured I would try to get some work done.”

“You didn’t appear to be busy with work a moment ago?” He raised an eyebrow.

You felt your mouth curve up. “Guilty.” Then your eyes narrowed. “What are you doing down here?”

“Your boss sent an email notifying me of your arrival.”

“You have him spying on me, Mr. Kaiba?”

He smirked. Then he changed the subject. “Come work in my office.”

You knew that you should protest, but you didn’t want Kaiba to leave. You felt lighter having him here. “Ok. Let me collect my things.”

He stayed in your office as you grabbed your work laptop and bag. The car keys were sitting on your desk, and you picked them up, handing them over to Kaiba. “You should probably take these.”

He frowned, staring at the offered keys. “You drove here?”

“Yes? I mean… how else‒”

He snatched the keys out of your hand. “You drove _this_ car?” His voice stayed quiet, but he hissed out the word ‘this’, and you knew that you had made a very big mistake.

“I just grabbed a pair of keys… I’m so sorry…”

His fist clenched around the keys. He stared at you, unblinking.

He stayed frozen for so long that you began to worry he was having some sort of medical issue. Mokuba constantly said his brother was one piece of bad news away from having his brain explode.

Then he took a deep breath, exhaling and looking away. “This car isn’t even street legal. I’m surprised you made it here in one piece.” He turned and left without giving you a chance to ask him for clarification.

That would be the last time you touched a car that you weren’t sure about.

You trailed behind Kaiba as he led you over to the elevators. If you thought entering your department had been awkward, it was nothing compared to the way people avoided looking your way as you left with Kaiba.

Kaiba slid his keycard into the reader for his personal elevator, and when the doors opened, you followed him into the compact space. You hugged your laptop to your chest and tried not to be obvious about the way you eyed his white suit. No matter how many times you saw him in a suit, you still couldn’t get over how good he looked.

He smelled nice, too. You shuffled closer to him.

The doors opened, revealing Kaiba’s office. You followed behind him as he strode over to his desk. He sat down and looked up at you. “Did you need something?”

You almost jumped back at his tone of voice. “No, um, where do I sit?”

“This isn’t your first time working here. Sit wherever.”

He turned to his computer, dismissing you. You hesitated and looked around the room. The couch was nice. You wandered over and put your computer down on the table next to it. Then you paced back over to Kaiba. You hesitated, worry keeping you from saying anything. You turned to pace back to your computer.

“Just spit it out,” Kaiba ordered, freezing you in place.

You pivoted, turning to face him. He wasn’t even looking at you, his focus still on his computer as he looked between his screen and the paper on his desk. “So, about the car…” You trailed off, hoping he would interrupt you to say that it didn’t matter. When he said nothing, letting you stand there with your mouth open, you finished with, “I hope you aren’t mad that I drove it…”

“Whatever. Just don’t drive that one again.”

At least he wasn’t angry. You went back over to the couch to start working on your computer, wondering why you still felt anxious.

Sitting in the room with Kaiba, you were able to focus on your emails and compose a few responses. Some of the emails needed more than a simple reply, so you flagged those and filed them in a to-do folder. Some of the emails weren’t important, and you removed them from your main inbox.

By the time you sorted through everything, it was almost five, and Kaiba had left the room for a meeting. You stood, intending to stretch out your legs and take a quick break. You walked over to the windows, and walked the length of the windowed wall, looking at the city below.

You might never get used to this view. The people of Domino seemed like ants in a farm as you watched the cars flow through the streets. When you looked down on them like this, you almost felt like you understood Kaiba in some way.

He could have any woman that he wanted. Even if that weren’t one hundred percent true, you knew that was the way he felt.

What would have happened to you if your application hadn’t caught his eye? Would he have ended up with one of the other women who had applied for the job of “wife”? Had he settled for you just because your application had been better in some way than the others, or did you somehow stand out, making him think, ‘This is the one’?

You still felt like an idiot. How could you have been so stupid that you didn’t even realize that you were signing a marriage license?

At the same time… if you had caught on to what was going on…

Watanabe might…

Nobody would have come after you.

You turned, ready to gather your computer and clock out for the day. Your marriage was a sham, but your husband was the only person who would have rescued you. In another reality where you never married Seto Kaiba…

Watanabe could have done whatever he wanted.

Somehow you ended up sitting on the floor. Kaiba’s carpet was soft. You could rub your face against it if you wanted. You ran your hand in circles over the material, thinking of nothing at all, trying not to think about what could have been, what might have been, what may have happened.

Your hand pushed around the carpet, smoothing it down and leaving a path behind. Your hand followed the path around and around and around and around‒

“What are you doing?”

You sat up straight, looking over at Kaiba. “Hi.” You pushed yourself up into a standing position, swaying as you stood. “How was the meeting?”

“Fine.” He walked up to you. “Are you going to answer my question?”

You looked down at the floor. “I wasn’t really doing anything.” You had no idea how you ended up down there. You looked back at Kaiba and grinned, stretching your mouth as wide as it would go. “I’m caught up with my emails. How much longer do you think you’ll want to stay here and work?”

He studied you for a moment. You felt your smile shrink under his stare. What could he be looking for?

Then he turned away and checked the time. “We can go home now, if you want.”

“Really?” You stayed rooted in place as he walked over to his desk and pulled his briefcase out.

“Everything else that I need to work on today can be done at home.”

“Great!” You focused on shutting your computer down. “Let me take my laptop back to my desk, and I’ll meet you back here.”

“Leave it here.”

You hugged the laptop to your chest as you looked back at Kaiba. You raised an eyebrow wondering where that command had come from.

“My office is locked when I’m not present. You laptop will be fine here,” he clarified.

“But then… won’t I have to come up here to get it tomorrow?”

“Just leave it here. There’s no point in going down to your department just to drop it off.”

You nodded, even though you didn’t fully agree. You didn’t care enough to argue. “Ok. Should I put it anywhere specifically?”

He held out his hand. You shuffled over to him and passed your computer over. He opened one of his desk drawers and put your computer inside. Then he went back to packing his suitcase.

“How was your day?” Some part of you felt uncomfortable right now and needed to fill the silence.

“Fine.”

You knew this was the fastest way to get on Kaiba’s nerves, but you couldn’t stop yourself. “Anything interesting happen?”

“No.” He shut his suitcase and stared at you again. You hated the way he seemed to be reading your mind, looking for the answer to a question he had yet to vocalize.

“Well, time to go!” You turned away from him and grabbed your bag. At the elevator, you paused. “Maybe I should have access to this elevator, too?” You looked back at Kaiba, grinning.

“No.”

Maybe you shouldn’t be surprised, but you were. “Why not?”

“This elevator is for my personal use only.” He swiped his card in the reader, and the doors opened with a ding. “If anyone else were to use it, then it wouldn’t stay on the same floor, and then I would be forced to wait for it.”

“Greedy!” You followed him into the elevator, standing closer than you needed to. “I’m sure just letting me use it wouldn’t make a difference.”

His lips curled up into a half smile. “I’m not waiting for it to come up from the animation floor when I need it.”

You smiled up at him. “Then I guess you need a faster elevator.”

“Why waste resources on that when I have my own elevator that doesn’t require waiting?”

You leaned forward, pressing your body against his. “So your wife doesn’t have to sit around and wait for the communal elevators?”

His arm wrapped around your waist. “Then my wife should come to work with me in the morning so she can use my elevator.”

“Is that what I have to do to get access to your elevator?” You pushed yourself up onto your toes as he pulled you flush against his body. He leaned down, face coming closer to yours. You gripped the front of his suit.

“There might be a fee involved.” His words were whispered. His voice promised you would enjoy the fee.

You tilted your head until your lips were almost pressed against his. You whispered against his lips, “Don’t you have enough money, Mr. Kaiba?”

“Seto,” he corrected.

“Seto,” you agreed.

Then his lips pressed against yours, and you sighed into the kiss, just as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. He broke the kiss long enough to reach forward and hit the buttons to shut the doors. Then he pinned you against the wall and kissed you again. This kiss was harder, and one of his hands wrapped around the back of your neck while the hand on your back slid down toward your ass.

You slid your hands under his suit jacket and ran them over his chest. Your hands slid over his chest, squeezing his pecs and rubbing every inch of his body that you had been eyeing in that suit.

When the two of you pulled apart, you were panting a little, but you wanted to chase his lips down with your own again. You took a step away from him, reminding yourself that you were in an elevator at work, and straightened your clothing. When you glanced over at Kaiba to assess how he was feeling, you found him smirking at you.

You smiled back at him. “I think we should open the doors and leave before your security staff wonders what we’re doing in here.”

He pressed a button, and the doors slid open. As the two of you left the elevator, you reached out and grabbed his hand. He paused, it was almost a stumble really, as you grabbed his hand, but only for a moment before he continued walking. You walked with him to the car, hand-in-hand, feeling comforted by his presence.


End file.
